Ameriprise Financial Inc. Buys 24,857 Shares of Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)

Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR - Free Report) by 5.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 477,452 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after acquiring an additional 24,857 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned 0.13% of Equity Residential worth $34,262,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its holdings in Equity Residential by 1,568.2% in the fourth quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 332,434 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $23,855,000 after acquiring an additional 312,506 shares during the last quarter. DoubleLine ETF Adviser LP boosted its holdings in Equity Residential by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. DoubleLine ETF Adviser LP now owns 24,542 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,761,000 after acquiring an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its holdings in Equity Residential by 80.0% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 163,143 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $11,707,000 after acquiring an additional 72,513 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its holdings in Equity Residential by 194.4% during the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 196,274 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $14,085,000 after buying an additional 129,598 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parvin Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Equity Residential during the fourth quarter worth about $57,000. Institutional investors own 92.68% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on EQR shares. StockNews.com upgraded Equity Residential from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, February 8th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Equity Residential from $77.00 to $75.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. Scotiabank raised their target price on Equity Residential from $79.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Equity Residential from $82.25 to $80.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Equity Residential from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $79.69.

Equity Residential Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NYSE EQR traded up $0.91 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $71.77. 5,064,736 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,732,057. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.39, a PEG ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $68.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $70.86. Equity Residential has a twelve month low of $59.41 and a twelve month high of $78.84.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $760.81 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $769.43 million. Equity Residential had a return on equity of 9.27% and a net margin of 34.76%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.93 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Equity Residential will post 3.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a $0.6925 dividend. This is a boost from Equity Residential's previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.77 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.86%. Equity Residential's payout ratio is presently 105.73%.

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.