Equity Residential Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.68 (NYSE:EQR)

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, September 16th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 24th will be paid a dividend of 0.675 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, October 11th. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 24th.

Equity Residential has increased its dividend by an average of 3.2% per year over the last three years. Equity Residential has a dividend payout ratio of 164.6% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect Equity Residential to earn $4.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 67.2%.

Equity Residential Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE EQR traded down $0.05 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $78.03. 593,488 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,901,226. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $71.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $67.15. Equity Residential has a twelve month low of $52.57 and a twelve month high of $78.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.41, a P/E/G ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by ($0.49). Equity Residential had a return on equity of 8.53% and a net margin of 32.83%. The firm had revenue of $734.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $735.26 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.94 earnings per share. Equity Residential’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Equity Residential will post 3.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on EQR shares. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Equity Residential from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $62.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $75.62.

Insider Transactions at Equity Residential

In related news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.08, for a total transaction of $439,141.56. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 14,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,006,910.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

About Equity Residential

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.