Equity Residential Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.68 (NYSE:EQR)

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, September 13th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 24th will be given a dividend of 0.675 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, October 11th. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 24th.

Equity Residential has raised its dividend by an average of 3.2% per year over the last three years. Equity Residential has a payout ratio of 164.6% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect Equity Residential to earn $4.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 67.2%.

Equity Residential Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of EQR opened at $76.58 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $72.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.65. Equity Residential has a 12 month low of $52.57 and a 12 month high of $78.83. The company has a market capitalization of $29.07 billion, a PE ratio of 31.78, a PEG ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by ($0.49). Equity Residential had a return on equity of 8.53% and a net margin of 32.83%. 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 prior year, the firm earned $0.94 earnings per share. Equity Residential’s revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Equity Residential will post 3.89 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EQR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Mizuho increased their price target on Equity Residential from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Equity Residential from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Equity Residential in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $83.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $62.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Equity Residential currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $75.62.

Insider Activity at Equity Residential

In other Equity Residential news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 14,576 shares in the company, valued at $1,006,910.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.