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

Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 12th,RTT News reports. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.66%.

Equity Residential has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.2% per year over the last three years. Equity Residential has a dividend payout ratio of 165.6% indicating that 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 Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE EQR opened at $73.79 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $73.94 and its 200 day moving average is $71.84. Equity Residential has a 52 week low of $57.33 and a 52 week high of $78.83. 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 cap of $28.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.24, a PEG ratio of 5.90 and a beta of 0.92.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $83.00 to $79.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America lowered Equity Residential from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $78.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Equity Residential from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $62.00 to $83.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Scotiabank cut their price target 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Equity Residential presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $77.25.

About Equity Residential

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.