Truist Financial Boosts Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Price Target to $77.00

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) had its price objective boosted by Truist Financial from $73.00 to $77.00 in a research report report published on Thursday, Benzinga reports. Truist Financial currently has a buy rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

EQR has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Equity Residential from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and raised their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $72.16.

Equity Residential Stock Up 1.1 %

EQR stock opened at $74.88 on Thursday. Equity Residential has a twelve month low of $52.57 and a twelve month high of $75.11. The company has a market cap of $28.39 billion, a PE ratio of 31.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.87. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $70.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.02. 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 released 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). The firm had revenue of $734.20 million for 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Equity Residential will post 3.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Equity Residential Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 3.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 1st. Equity Residential’s dividend payout ratio is currently 112.03%.

Insider Activity at Equity Residential

In other Equity Residential news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of Equity Residential stock in a transaction 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 completion of 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Equity Residential

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in Equity Residential by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 46,353 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,214,000 after acquiring an additional 1,344 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in Equity Residential by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 12,768 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $885,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares during the period. Chase Investment Counsel Corp acquired a new stake in Equity Residential during the 2nd quarter worth $341,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 32.7% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 811 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 16,647 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,154,000 after buying an additional 1,174 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

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.