Equity Residential (EQR) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.68 on October 11th

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, September 13th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 24th will be given a dividend of 0.675 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, October 11th. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 24th.

Equity Residential has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.2% per year over the last three years. Equity Residential has a payout ratio of 164.6% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect Equity Residential to earn $4.02 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 67.2%.

Equity Residential Stock Down 0.6 %

EQR opened at $76.58 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $72.72 and a 200-day moving average of $67.65. The company has a market capitalization of $29.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.78, a P/E/G ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.89. Equity Residential has a fifty-two week low of $52.57 and a fifty-two week high of $78.83. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $735.26 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.94 EPS. Equity Residential’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Equity Residential will post 3.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,006,910.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Equity Residential from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $62.00 to $83.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Equity Residential currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $75.62.

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.