Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Price Target Raised to $75.00

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) had its price target raised by equities researchers at Wedbush from $68.00 to $75.00 in a report released on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 7.47% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on EQR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Equity Residential from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $68.00 to $70.00 in a report on Monday, April 22nd. UBS Group raised their target price on Equity Residential from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Equity Residential from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $65.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.84.

Equity Residential Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of EQR stock traded down $0.43 on Monday, reaching $69.79. The company had a trading volume of 2,120,659 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,971,293. Equity Residential has a 12 month low of $52.57 and a 12 month high of $72.32. The company has a 50-day moving average of $67.81 and a 200-day moving average of $64.25. The stock has a market cap of $26.49 billion, a PE ratio of 29.08, a PEG ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.96 by ($0.49). Equity Residential had a net margin of 32.83% and a return on equity of 8.53%. The company had revenue of $734.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $735.26 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.94 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Equity Residential

In other Equity Residential news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.08, for a total value of $439,141.56. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 14,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,006,910.08. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of EQR. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Equity Residential during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,143,388,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 1.9% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,267,675 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,279,095,000 after buying an additional 381,236 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. raised its position in Equity Residential by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. now owns 11,598,251 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $709,349,000 after acquiring an additional 71,716 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Equity Residential by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 9,325,268 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $570,333,000 after buying an additional 516,941 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 482.3% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,153,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $496,040,000 after acquiring an additional 5,925,177 shares during the last quarter. 92.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.