Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Makes New Investment in Equity Residential $EQR

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 72,494 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $4,693,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in EQR. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in Equity Residential by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 7,489 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $536,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in Equity Residential by 14.5% during the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 23,595 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,578,000 after purchasing an additional 2,996 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 13.3% in the second quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 12,325 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $832,000 after purchasing an additional 1,444 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Equity Residential by 5.0% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,437 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $502,000 after purchasing an additional 355 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio raised its position in shares of Equity Residential by 1.2% in the second quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 616,045 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $41,577,000 after purchasing an additional 7,472 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.68% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on EQR. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Equity Residential from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $68.00 in a report on Friday, January 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on Equity Residential from $70.00 to $68.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Equity Residential from $75.00 to $71.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Equity Residential from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Equity Residential from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.54.

Equity Residential Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of EQR stock opened at $61.02 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $23.22 billion, a PE ratio of 20.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.75. Equity Residential has a 52-week low of $58.38 and a 52-week high of $75.86. The business’s fifty day moving average is $61.36 and its 200 day moving average is $63.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.45.

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.02. The business had revenue of $782.41 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $779.68 million. Equity Residential had a return on equity of 10.30% and a net margin of 37.58%.During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. Equity Residential has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.020-1.060 EPS and its FY 2025 guidance at 3.980-4.020 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Equity Residential will post 3.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity Residential Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.6925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 2nd. This represents a $2.77 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.5%. Equity Residential’s payout ratio is presently 91.42%.

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.