Sarasin & Partners LLP Increases Stock Holdings in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)

Sarasin & Partners LLP raised its stake in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) by 26.2% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 101,053 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,974 shares during the period. Sarasin & Partners LLP’s holdings in Equity Residential were worth $7,007,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of EQR. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Equity Residential during the first quarter worth $27,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV grew its holdings in Equity Residential by 41.9% during the second quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 525 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the period. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. acquired a new position in Equity Residential during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in Equity Residential during the first quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Lindbrook Capital LLC grew its holdings in Equity Residential by 144.4% during the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 716 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 423 shares during the period. 92.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on EQR. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Equity Residential from $67.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 24th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Equity Residential from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Equity Residential from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. Scotiabank upped their target price on Equity Residential from $72.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Equity Residential from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.91.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of Equity Residential stock in a transaction on Monday, June 24th. The stock was 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Equity Residential Price Performance

Shares of EQR stock traded up $0.17 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $71.41. 1,442,953 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,968,109. Equity Residential has a twelve month low of $52.57 and a twelve month high of $72.32. The firm has a market cap of $27.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.87. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $68.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.21.

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

Equity Residential Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 12th. Investors of record on Monday, July 1st were issued a $0.675 dividend. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 1st. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is 112.03%.

Equity Residential 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.