Barclays Cuts Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Price Target to $79.00

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) had its price target lowered by investment analysts at Barclays from $83.00 to $79.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 15.82% from the company’s current price.

EQR has been the topic of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $83.00 to $79.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank dropped their target price on Equity Residential from $81.00 to $78.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $77.75 to $81.50 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Equity Residential from $78.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Equity Residential from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Equity Residential currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $78.47.

Equity Residential Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE:EQR opened at $68.21 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.13 and a quick ratio of 0.13. Equity Residential has a 1-year low of $57.33 and a 1-year high of $78.83. The company has a 50-day moving average of $72.20 and a 200 day moving average of $72.62. The firm has a market cap of $25.88 billion, a PE ratio of 27.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 0.93.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equity Residential

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of EQR. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Equity Residential by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,922,127 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,796,976,000 after acquiring an additional 321,002 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Equity Residential by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,353,944 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $694,441,000 after purchasing an additional 132,638 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in Equity Residential by 29.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,746,494 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $576,804,000 after purchasing an additional 1,741,840 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Equity Residential by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,745,615 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $576,737,000 after purchasing an additional 591,866 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 806.4% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,259,145 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $317,136,000 after buying an additional 3,789,234 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.