Equity Residential (EQR) Competitors

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) and Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, community ranking, dividends, valuation, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership and media sentiment.

Which has higher earnings and valuation, AVB or EQR?

AvalonBay Communities has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Equity Residential. AvalonBay Communities is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Equity Residential, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AvalonBay Communities	$2.59B	9.74	$1.14B	$6.57	27.08
Equity Residential	$2.74B	8.13	$776.91M	$1.80	32.52

Is AVB or EQR a better dividend stock?

AvalonBay Communities pays an annual dividend of $6.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Equity Residential pays an annual dividend of $2.65 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. AvalonBay Communities pays out 100.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Equity Residential pays out 147.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AvalonBay Communities has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Equity Residential has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Equity Residential is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Is AVB or EQR more profitable?

AvalonBay Communities has a net margin of 33.96% compared to AvalonBay Communities' net margin of 23.99%. Equity Residential's return on equity of 8.07% beat AvalonBay Communities' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AvalonBay Communities	33.96%	8.07%	4.52%
Equity Residential	23.99%	6.06%	3.39%

Which has more volatility and risk, AVB or EQR?

AvalonBay Communities has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Equity Residential has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts prefer AVB or EQR?

AvalonBay Communities currently has a consensus price target of $194.35, suggesting a potential upside of 9.22%. Equity Residential has a consensus price target of $65.68, suggesting a potential upside of 12.19%. Given AvalonBay Communities' higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Equity Residential is more favorable than AvalonBay Communities.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AvalonBay Communities	0 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.44
Equity Residential	1 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.21

Does the media favor AVB or EQR?

In the previous week, AvalonBay Communities had 7 more articles in the media than Equity Residential. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for AvalonBay Communities and 18 mentions for Equity Residential. Equity Residential's average media sentiment score of 0.68 beat AvalonBay Communities' score of 0.32 indicating that AvalonBay Communities is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
AvalonBay Communities	6 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Equity Residential	7 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer AVB or EQR?

AvalonBay Communities received 172 more outperform votes than Equity Residential when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.81% of users gave AvalonBay Communities an outperform vote while only 48.07% of users gave Equity Residential an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
AvalonBay Communities	Outperform Votes 657 61.81%	Underperform Votes 406 38.19%
Equity Residential	Outperform Votes 485 48.07%	Underperform Votes 524 51.93%

Do institutionals and insiders believe in AVB or EQR?

88.7% of AvalonBay Communities shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.8% of Equity Residential shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of AvalonBay Communities shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Equity Residential shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

AvalonBay Communities beats Equity Residential on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.