Equity Residential $EQR Shares Acquired by California State Teachers Retirement System

California State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) by 6,638.4% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 38,021,100 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 37,456,854 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System owned about 0.10% of Equity Residential worth $2,582,773,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Equity Residential during the 4th quarter worth $2,201,674,000. Cohen & Steers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 227.7% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 7,405,502 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $466,869,000 after acquiring an additional 5,145,442 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 5,893.5% during the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,335,122 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $294,485,000 after acquiring an additional 4,262,792 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 876.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,500,885 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $291,342,000 after acquiring an additional 4,039,752 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Equity Residential by 797.2% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,085,406 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $134,988,000 after acquiring an additional 1,852,970 shares during the last quarter. 92.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on EQR shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Equity Residential from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Wolfe Research upgraded Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada downgraded Equity Residential from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $70.00 in a report on Monday, June 8th. UBS Group upped their target price on Equity Residential from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Nordea Equity Research upgraded Equity Residential to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.40.

Equity Residential Stock Performance

Shares of EQR opened at $63.68 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $66.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $64.61. Equity Residential has a 12-month low of $57.57 and a 12-month high of $71.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.88 billion, a PE ratio of 27.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.53 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.19 and a quick ratio of 0.19.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.01. Equity Residential had a net margin of 27.97% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The firm had revenue of $785.05 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $787.28 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.99 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Equity Residential will post 4.08 EPS for the current year.

Equity Residential Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 10th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 4.4%. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is 122.17%.

Equity Residential Profile

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates and develops rental apartment communities. The company focuses on providing housing in large, economically diverse metropolitan areas where demand for apartment living is supported by employment, population growth and limited housing supply.

Its portfolio primarily serves residents in major U.S. markets, including Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Southern California, Seattle and Denver. Equity Residential’s activities include leasing apartment homes, managing residential communities and providing resident services and property amenities.

The company traces its roots to 1969 and was founded by real estate investor Samuel Zell.