Aew Capital Management L P Reduces Stake in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)

Aew Capital Management L P reduced its position in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) by 6.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 391,211 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 25,690 shares during the period. Aew Capital Management L P owned about 0.10% of Equity Residential worth $23,926,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of EQR. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Equity Residential by 0.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 57,395,793 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,369,707,000 after buying an additional 372,181 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Equity Residential by 1.8% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,457,092 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $320,386,000 after buying an additional 94,511 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its position in Equity Residential by 13.8% during the third quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 5,206,249 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $305,659,000 after buying an additional 629,813 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Equity Residential by 68.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,416,565 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $259,297,000 after buying an additional 1,795,772 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in Equity Residential by 5.2% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,136,866 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $242,876,000 after buying an additional 203,470 shares in the last quarter. 92.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Equity Residential Trading Up 0.4 %

EQR stock traded up $0.26 during trading on Friday, reaching $65.14. 2,790,561 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,111,780. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $61.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.84. Equity Residential has a 52-week low of $52.57 and a 52-week high of $69.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.23 and a quick ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.68 billion, a PE ratio of 27.03, a P/E/G ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.84.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.02. Equity Residential had a return on equity of 8.18% and a net margin of 31.70%. The firm had revenue of $730.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $728.09 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.87 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Equity Residential Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 25th were given a dividend of $0.675 per share. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 22nd. This is an increase from Equity Residential’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is 112.03%.

Insider Transactions at Equity Residential

In other news, COO Michael L. Manelis sold 1,639 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.43, for a total value of $97,405.77. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 31,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,479.79. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, COO Michael L. Manelis sold 1,639 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.43, for a total value of $97,405.77. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 31,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,479.79. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Ian Kaufman sold 716 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.80, for a total value of $41,384.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,384,252.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 3,280 shares of company stock valued at $192,335 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on EQR shares. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Equity Residential from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James upgraded Equity Residential from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Equity Residential from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $62.00 price objective on shares of Equity Residential in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Equity Residential from $58.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.04.

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.