Blair William & Co. IL Decreases Position in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)

Blair William & Co. IL decreased its position in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) by 2.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,402 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 407 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Equity Residential were worth $1,137,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of EQR. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 482.3% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,153,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $496,040,000 after acquiring an additional 5,925,177 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 679.0% in the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 594,774 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $40,528,000 after acquiring an additional 518,424 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 39.6% in the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,676,445 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $116,245,000 after acquiring an additional 475,124 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 77.5% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,061,862 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $67,014,000 after acquiring an additional 463,664 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 793.8% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 444,791 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $28,071,000 after acquiring an additional 395,029 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

Equity Residential Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE EQR opened at $75.28 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $73.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $67.87. The company has a market cap of $28.57 billion, a PE ratio of 31.24, a P/E/G ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.89. Equity Residential has a 52-week low of $52.57 and a 52-week high of $78.83. 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 (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 the consensus estimate of $0.96 by ($0.49). The firm had revenue of $734.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $735.26 million. Equity Residential had a return on equity of 8.53% and a net margin of 32.83%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.94 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Equity Residential will post 3.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 24th will be paid a $0.675 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 24th. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.59%. Equity Residential’s dividend payout ratio is presently 112.03%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on EQR. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Equity Residential from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Monday, August 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Equity Residential in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $81.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America cut shares of Equity Residential from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $78.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $62.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Thirteen investment 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.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $75.97.

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.