Equity Residential Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.68 (NYSE:EQR)

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 12th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.675 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, January 17th. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.68%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 2nd.

Equity Residential has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.2% annually over the last three years. Equity Residential has a dividend payout ratio of 172.0% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Equity Residential to earn $4.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 67.0%.

Equity Residential Price Performance

NYSE EQR opened at $73.28 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $73.93 and its 200-day moving average is $71.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 0.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The company has a market capitalization of $27.80 billion, a PE ratio of 30.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.90 and a beta of 0.92. Equity Residential has a 12-month low of $57.33 and a 12-month high of $78.83.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on shares of Equity Residential in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $83.00 target price on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $62.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Equity Residential from $81.00 to $78.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company cut Equity Residential from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $77.00 in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Equity Residential from $83.00 to $79.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $77.25.

Equity Residential Company Profile

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.