Equity Residential to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.68 (NYSE:EQR)

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, June 20th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.675 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, July 12th. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.89%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 1st.

Equity Residential has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.2% per year over the last three years. Equity Residential has a payout ratio of 162.7% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Equity Residential to earn $4.00 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 67.5%.

Equity Residential Stock Performance

EQR stock opened at $69.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.23 and a quick ratio of 0.23. Equity Residential has a 1-year low of $52.57 and a 1-year high of $69.65. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $66.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.87. The company has a market capitalization of $26.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.77, a PEG ratio of 3.98 and a beta of 0.85.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $730.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $728.09 million. Equity Residential had a net margin of 31.70% and a return on equity of 8.18%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.87 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 3.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Equity Residential news, EVP Alexander Brackenridge sold 4,027 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.01, for a total value of $261,795.27. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 69,901 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,544,264.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Equity Residential news, EVP Alexander Brackenridge sold 4,027 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.01, for a total value of $261,795.27. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 69,901 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,544,264.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Mary Kay Haben sold 3,241 shares of Equity Residential stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.48, for a total transaction of $212,220.68. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $636,465.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 13,625 shares of company stock valued at $913,158 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $68.00 price target on shares of Equity Residential in a research report on Monday, April 29th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Equity Residential from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Equity Residential from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Equity Residential from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.09.

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.