Picton Mahoney Asset Management Acquires New Holdings in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)

Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 2,520 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $175,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of EQR. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Equity Residential during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. bought a new position in Equity Residential in the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV increased its stake in Equity Residential by 41.9% in the 2nd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 525 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 155 shares during the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in Equity Residential during the 1st quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Equity Residential during the 4th quarter worth about $49,000. Institutional investors own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush upped their target price on Equity Residential from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Equity Residential from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Equity Residential has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.16.

Equity Residential Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Equity Residential stock opened at $74.88 on Monday. Equity Residential has a 52-week low of $52.57 and a 52-week high of $75.11. The stock has a market cap of $28.39 billion, a PE ratio of 31.07, a PEG ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $70.23 and a 200-day moving average of $66.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a current ratio of 0.21.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by ($0.49). Equity Residential had a return on equity of 8.53% and a net margin of 32.83%. The business had revenue of $734.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $735.26 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.94 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 3.89 EPS for the current year.

Equity Residential Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 1st were issued a $0.675 dividend. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.61%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 1st. Equity Residential’s dividend payout ratio is currently 112.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equity Residential

In related news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 24th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,006,910.08. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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.