Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Now Covered by Barclays

Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) in a report published on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating and a $83.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Equity Residential in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $81.00 target price for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $77.75 to $81.50 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Royal Bank of Canada cut 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. Finally, Bank of America cut Equity Residential from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $78.00 to $82.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $78.14.

Equity Residential Stock Down 0.9 %

EQR opened at $72.80 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $27.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.90 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.13 and a current ratio of 0.13. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $73.94 and its 200 day moving average is $72.12. Equity Residential has a fifty-two week low of $57.33 and a fifty-two week high of $78.83.

Equity Residential Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.675 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.71%. Equity Residential’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 110.66%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equity Residential

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Equity Residential by 4.6% in 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 period. Synovus Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in Equity Residential by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 129,258 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $9,625,000 after buying an additional 14,109 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in Equity Residential during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its position in Equity Residential by 69.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 20,752 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,573,000 after buying an additional 8,534 shares during the period. 92.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.