Scotiabank Reaffirms Sector Perform Rating for Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)‘s stock had its “sector perform” rating restated by investment analysts at Scotiabank in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. They presently have a $77.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $78.00. Scotiabank’s target price indicates a potential upside of 20.11% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on EQR. Morgan Stanley set a $75.00 target price on Equity Residential and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group dropped their target price on Equity Residential from $84.00 to $76.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on Equity Residential from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus set a $80.50 price target on Equity Residential and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Equity Residential from $72.00 to $71.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.78.

Equity Residential Trading Up 0.9%

Equity Residential stock traded up $0.60 during trading on Thursday, hitting $64.11. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,890,265 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,275,611. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $66.56 and its 200 day moving average is $68.69. Equity Residential has a 1-year low of $59.41 and a 1-year high of $78.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.17 and a current ratio of 0.17.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.99. The firm had revenue of $768.83 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $770.60 million. Equity Residential had a return on equity of 9.05% and a net margin of 33.22%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.97 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Equity Residential will post 3.98 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equity Residential

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in Equity Residential by 51.6% in the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 461 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its holdings in Equity Residential by 27.6% in the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 740 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust boosted its holdings in Equity Residential by 4.4% in the first quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 3,858 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $276,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in Equity Residential by 1.6% in the first quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 10,733 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $768,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avior Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Equity Residential by 2.9% in the first quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,283 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $450,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

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.