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

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, June 20th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, July 1st will be given a dividend of 0.675 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, July 12th. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 1st.

Equity Residential has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.2% annually over the last three years. Equity Residential has a payout ratio of 162.7% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Equity Residential to earn $4.00 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 67.5%.

Equity Residential Trading Up 1.5 %

NYSE:EQR opened at $69.34 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $26.32 billion, a PE ratio of 28.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.98 and a beta of 0.85. Equity Residential has a fifty-two week low of $52.57 and a fifty-two week high of $69.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.23 and a quick ratio of 0.23. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $66.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $62.87.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $730.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $728.09 million. Equity Residential had a net margin of 31.70% and a return on equity of 8.18%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.87 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Equity Residential from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $68.00 price target on shares of Equity Residential in a report on Monday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. Truist Financial raised their target price on Equity Residential from $67.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 24th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on Equity Residential from $65.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 14th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equity Residential presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $69.09.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of Equity Residential stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.08, for a total transaction of $439,141.56. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 14,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,006,910.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Mary Kay Haben sold 3,241 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.48, for a total value of $212,220.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $636,465.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, 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 value of $439,141.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 14,576 shares in the company, valued at $1,006,910.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 13,625 shares of company stock valued at $913,158. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.