Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Grows Position in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its position in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) by 21.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 81,026 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,267 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV’s holdings in Equity Residential were worth $5,618,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in EQR. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Equity Residential in the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in Equity Residential during the 4th quarter valued at about $208,000. UBS Group AG increased its holdings in Equity Residential by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 887,030 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $54,251,000 after purchasing an additional 8,202 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Equity Residential during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $212,000. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its holdings in Equity Residential by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 270,089 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $16,519,000 after buying an additional 6,026 shares during the period. 92.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EQR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Equity Residential from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Equity Residential in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $81.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho lifted 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. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Equity Residential from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $69.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Equity Residential has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $75.62.

Equity Residential Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:EQR opened at $76.58 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $72.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.65. Equity Residential has a 12-month low of $52.57 and a 12-month high of $78.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.78, a PEG ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.89.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $734.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $735.26 million. During the same period in the prior 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, research analysts anticipate that Equity Residential will post 3.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.675 per share. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.53%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 24th. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is 112.03%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Robert Garechana sold 6,357 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.08, for a total value of $439,141.56. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 14,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,006,910.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.00% 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.