Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Raises Holdings in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) by 896.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 88,927 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 80,000 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Equity Residential were worth $6,166,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Equity Residential during the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its position in shares of Equity Residential by 41.9% during the 2nd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 525 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Equity Residential during the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Equity Residential by 146.6% during the 2nd quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 550 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 327 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Equity Residential during the 1st quarter worth about $41,000. 92.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush upped their price objective on Equity Residential from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company cut Equity Residential from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $69.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Monday, August 26th. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Equity Residential in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $83.00 target price for the company. Scotiabank upped their target price on Equity Residential from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Equity Residential from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $75.62.

Equity Residential Stock Performance

Shares of EQR stock opened at $76.58 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $29.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $72.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $67.69. Equity Residential has a 12-month low of $52.57 and a 12-month high of $78.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last issued 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). The business had revenue of $734.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $735.26 million. Equity Residential had a return on equity of 8.53% and a net margin of 32.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.94 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 3.89 EPS for the current year.

Equity Residential Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 24th will be paid 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 of this dividend is Tuesday, September 24th. Equity Residential’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 112.03%.

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.