Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 14th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 25th will be given a dividend of 0.5675 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, April 15th. This represents a $2.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.00%. This is an increase from Equity Residential’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54.
Equity Residential has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 0.5% annually over the last three years. Equity Residential has a dividend payout ratio of 70.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Equity Residential to earn $3.52 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.27 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 64.5%.
Shares of NYSE EQR traded up $0.33 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $75.61. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 761,434 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,338,350. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a current ratio of 0.29. The firm has a market cap of $27.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.26, a PEG ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.59. Equity Residential has a 1 year low of $59.29 and a 1 year high of $75.88.
Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.85 by ($0.54). Equity Residential had a return on equity of 6.31% and a net margin of 25.50%. The business had revenue of $652.55 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $652.35 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.83 earnings per share. Equity Residential’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Equity Residential will post 3.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.
A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Investment Research lowered Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Equity Residential from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 19th. Mizuho cut Equity Residential from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $71.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Equity Residential from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 17th. Finally, Argus upped their target price on shares of Equity Residential to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. The stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.54.
In other news, insider Alan W. George sold 23,993 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.76, for a total transaction of $1,793,716.68. Following the sale, the insider now owns 70,575 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,276,187. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Vice Chairman Gerald A. Spector sold 12,938 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $970,350.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 290,065 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,754,875. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 267,803 shares of company stock valued at $19,724,549 over the last ninety days. 3.75% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
About Equity Residential
Equity Residential is an S&P 500 company focused on the acquisition, development and management of rental apartment properties located in urban and high-density suburban markets where today’s renters want to live, work and play. Equity Residential owns or has investments in 307 properties consisting of 79,482 apartment units, primarily located in Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Seattle, San Francisco, Southern California and Denver.