Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC Acquires New Shares in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR)

Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC bought a new position in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 3,799 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $273,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in EQR. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Equity Residential by 66.5% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,463 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $183,000 after buying an additional 984 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Equity Residential by 8.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,745,615 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $576,737,000 after acquiring an additional 591,866 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its position in Equity Residential by 2,529.4% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 447 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 430 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc increased its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 28.8% during the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 28,056 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,089,000 after purchasing an additional 6,280 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Equity Residential by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,487 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $483,000 after purchasing an additional 997 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 equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $74.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Mizuho decreased their price target on Equity Residential from $78.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Equity Residential from $78.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Equity Residential from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Equity Residential from $77.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Equity Residential has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $78.51.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Scott Fenster sold 5,340 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.06, for a total value of $384,800.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 35,507 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,558,634.42. This represents a 13.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Ian Kaufman sold 642 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.06, for a total value of $46,262.52. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 25,539 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,840,340.34. This represents a 2.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 19,763 shares of company stock worth $1,424,217. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Equity Residential Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of EQR opened at $70.88 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $70.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.93. Equity Residential has a 52 week low of $59.48 and a 52 week high of $78.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.06, a P/E/G ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.91.

Equity Residential Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a $0.675 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.81%. Equity Residential’s dividend payout ratio is currently 99.26%.

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.