Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) Upgraded to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Equity Residential was upgraded from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating by Wall Street Zen, reflecting a more cautious outlook for the stock.
• Major investment firms, including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, have recently lowered their price targets for Equity Residential, indicating a prevailing trend of decreasing valuations.
• Equity Residential has a market capitalization of $23.77 billion and reported $768.83 million in revenue for the last quarter, meeting earnings per share expectations of $0.99.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR - Get Free Report) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

EQR has been the topic of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $76.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $76.50 to $75.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. BNP Paribas Exane cut shares of Equity Residential from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $84.00 to $76.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $74.25.

Equity Residential Stock Performance

Shares of Equity Residential stock opened at $62.24 on Friday. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $64.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $66.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.48, a PEG ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.90. Equity Residential has a 12 month low of $59.41 and a 12 month high of $78.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.17 and a quick ratio of 0.17.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 4th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.99. The company had revenue of $768.83 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $770.60 million. Equity Residential had a net margin of 33.22% and a return on equity of 9.05%. Equity Residential's revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.97 EPS. Equity Residential has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.970-4.030 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 0.990-1.030 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 3.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equity Residential

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Equity Residential by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,316,304 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $3,800,787,000 after buying an additional 315,370 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Equity Residential in the 2nd quarter worth about $2,351,689,000. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Equity Residential by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,234,081 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,651,909,000 after buying an additional 417,119 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Equity Residential by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,711,588 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,482,537,000 after buying an additional 1,101,027 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Equity Residential by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,884,977 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $664,662,000 after buying an additional 137,533 shares in the last quarter. 92.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

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