Acadian Asset Management LLC Raises Position in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)

Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) by 1,279.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 48,210 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 44,714 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Equity Residential were worth $3,339,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in EQR. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 36.6% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 569,829 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $35,962,000 after purchasing an additional 152,736 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its stake in Equity Residential by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 165,650 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $10,131,000 after purchasing an additional 20,010 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 551,960 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $33,482,000 after buying an additional 27,171 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Equity Residential by 200.9% in the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 77,019 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,861,000 after buying an additional 51,423 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake 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 worth $1,279,095,000 after buying an additional 381,236 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equity Residential

In other news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.08, for a total transaction of $439,141.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 14,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,006,910.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on EQR shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on shares of Equity Residential in a report on Wednesday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $83.00 price target for the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Equity Residential from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on Equity Residential from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Twelve 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 has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.62.

Equity Residential Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of EQR opened at $77.40 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $71.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $66.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a current ratio of 0.21. Equity Residential has a 1 year low of $52.57 and a 1 year high of $77.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.38 billion, a PE ratio of 32.12, a P/E/G ratio of 4.14 and a beta of 0.89.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $734.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $735.26 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.94 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 3.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 1st were given a $0.675 dividend. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 1st. Equity Residential’s dividend payout ratio is currently 112.03%.

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.