SteelPeak Wealth LLC Makes New Investment in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)

SteelPeak Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 35,698 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $2,580,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of EQR. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Equity Residential by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 3,827 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $275,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Equity Residential by 51.6% during the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 461 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its stake in Equity Residential by 27.6% during the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 740 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust grew its stake in Equity Residential by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 3,858 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $276,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its position in shares of Equity Residential by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 10,733 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $768,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.68% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EQR has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on Equity Residential from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Equity Residential from $82.25 to $80.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Equity Residential from $82.00 to $78.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 13th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Equity Residential from $76.00 to $71.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised Equity Residential from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $74.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Equity Residential currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $79.19.

Equity Residential Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of Equity Residential stock traded down $0.37 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $66.71. 1,284,643 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,769,515. Equity Residential has a 52-week low of $59.41 and a 52-week high of $78.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a fifty day moving average of $68.74 and a 200-day moving average of $69.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.02. Equity Residential had a return on equity of 8.93% and a net margin of 33.11%. The business had revenue of $760.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $769.43 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.93 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 3.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 24th were issued a $0.6925 dividend. This represents a $2.77 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 24th. Equity Residential's payout ratio is currently 105.73%.

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.