Analysts Set Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Target Price at $78.69

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nineteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $78.69.

Several research firms have commented on EQR. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Equity Residential from $83.00 to $79.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $77.75 to $81.50 in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Bank of America lowered Equity Residential from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $78.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Equity Residential by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 32,658 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,341,000 after acquiring an additional 979 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,966 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $500,000 after purchasing an additional 625 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Equity Residential by 4.6% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 182,397 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $13,430,000 after purchasing an additional 8,088 shares during the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp grew its stake in Equity Residential by 104.6% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 17,195 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,280,000 after purchasing an additional 8,789 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in Equity Residential by 12.3% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 129,258 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $9,625,000 after buying an additional 14,109 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

Equity Residential Price Performance

EQR stock opened at $67.04 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.94 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $72.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $72.56. Equity Residential has a 52-week low of $57.33 and a 52-week high of $78.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 0.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76.

Equity Residential Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.675 per share. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 2nd. Equity Residential’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.66%.

Equity Residential Company Profile

Equity Residential is committed to creating communities where people thrive. The Company, a member of the S&P 500, is focused on the acquisition, development and management of residential properties located in and around dynamic cities that attract affluent long-term renters. Equity Residential owns or has investments in 305 properties consisting of 80,683 apartment units, with an established presence in Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Seattle, San Francisco and Southern California, and an expanding presence in Denver, Atlanta, Dallas/Ft.