Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Shares Acquired by Aurora Investment Managers LLC.

Aurora Investment Managers LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 52,523 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 3,569 shares during the quarter. Equity Residential accounts for approximately 2.4% of Aurora Investment Managers LLC.’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Aurora Investment Managers LLC.’s holdings in Equity Residential were worth $3,911,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 1.9% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,267,675 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,279,095,000 after purchasing an additional 381,236 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 482.3% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,153,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $496,040,000 after purchasing an additional 5,925,177 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 1.2% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 5,001,360 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $346,794,000 after purchasing an additional 60,000 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 4.3% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,715,151 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $171,368,000 after purchasing an additional 112,270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 20.7% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,180,190 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $151,174,000 after purchasing an additional 373,229 shares in the last quarter. 92.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on EQR. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Bank of America lowered shares of Equity Residential from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $78.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $75.97.

Equity Residential Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of EQR stock traded up $0.23 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $75.10. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 136,355 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,867,927. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $74.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.12. Equity Residential has a 12-month low of $52.57 and a 12-month high of $78.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.50 billion, a PE ratio of 31.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.05 and a beta of 0.89.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last issued its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by ($0.49). Equity Residential had a net margin of 32.83% and a return on equity of 8.53%. The business 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 business posted $0.94 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Equity Residential will post 3.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 24th were paid a dividend of $0.675 per share. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.60%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 24th. Equity Residential’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 112.03%.

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.