Renaissance Technologies LLC Raises Position in Equity Residential $EQR

Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in shares of Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) by 573.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 595,400 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 506,934 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in Equity Residential were worth $35,218,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Equity Residential in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,201,674,000. State Street Corp increased its position in Equity Residential by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,922,935 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,630,103,000 after purchasing an additional 688,854 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,258,275 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $644,412,000 after buying an additional 114,604 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 9,242,013 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $582,617,000 after buying an additional 44,127 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 227.7% during the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 7,405,502 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $466,869,000 after buying an additional 5,145,442 shares in the last quarter. 92.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on EQR shares. Evercore lifted their price target on Equity Residential from $70.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Bank of America upgraded Equity Residential from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $76.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Wolfe Research raised Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Finally, Nordea Equity Research raised shares of Equity Residential to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and fourteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.40.

Equity Residential Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:EQR opened at $68.15 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.35 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.19 and a quick ratio of 0.18. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $67.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.04. Equity Residential has a 12 month low of $57.57 and a 12 month high of $71.50.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.24 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $779.85 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $781.79 million. Equity Residential had a net margin of 27.97% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.95 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 4.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 29th were issued a $0.7025 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 29th. This represents a $2.81 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.1%. Equity Residential’s dividend payout ratio is 122.17%.

About Equity Residential

Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires, develops, owns and operates rental apartment properties. Headquartered in Chicago, the company focuses on delivering professionally managed, market-rate apartment homes and related services to renters. Its operations cover a range of property types, including high-rise and mid-rise assets, with amenities and on-site management designed to support resident retention and occupancy.

The company’s core activities include property acquisitions, development and redevelopment, leasing, and day-to-day property management.