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Investing.com - Stifel raised its price target on Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR), a prominent player in the Residential REITs industry with a $24.55 billion market cap, to $80.50 from $80.00 while maintaining a Buy rating on the stock. According to InvestingPro analysis, the stock is currently fairly valued at its price of $62.67.
The firm noted that Equity Residential was the only apartment REIT to raise the high end of its 2025 earnings guidance, demonstrating its strong market position backed by a 33-year track record of consistent dividend payments and a current attractive yield of 4.42%. The company revised its 2025 guidance, now anticipating normalized FFO of $3.97-$4.03 per share, up from the previous $3.90-$4.00 range, implying 2.8% year-over-year growth at the midpoint.
Equity Residential also updated its same-store revenue growth forecast to 2.60%-3.20% from 2.25%-3.25%, while narrowing its same-store expense growth projection to 3.5%-4.0% from 3.5%-4.5%. The company now expects same-store NOI growth of 2.2%-2.8%, revised from the previous 1.4%-3.0% range.
For the third quarter of 2025, Equity Residential anticipates FFO per share of $1.08-$1.12 and normalized FFO per share of $0.99-$1.03, compared to the Street consensus of $1.00 for normalized FFO. Get deeper insights into EQR’s valuation metrics and growth potential with InvestingPro, which offers exclusive access to detailed financial analysis and real-time market intelligence.
The updated guidance also assumes physical occupancy of 96.4%, up from 96.2%, along with approximately $1.0 billion of acquisitions, down from $1.5 billion previously, and unchanged disposition plans of approximately $1.0 billion, with approximately 25 basis points of transaction dilution.
In other recent news, Equity Residential has been making headlines with several key developments. The company recently held its 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, where all ten nominees for the board of trustees were elected to one-year terms. Additionally, Chris Carr, former COO of Sweetgreen, has been appointed to the Board of Trustees, increasing the board’s size to 11 members. On the financial front, Evercore ISI upgraded Equity Residential’s stock from In Line to Outperform, citing strong coastal markets and maintaining quarterly and annual funds from operations estimates. Meanwhile, Stifel analysts reaffirmed their Buy rating on the stock, with a price target of $69.01, noting that second-quarter fundamentals are unfolding as expected or slightly better. However, there are concerns in the market as the lead of Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary has raised fears of potential rent control policies, impacting several real estate investment trusts, including Equity Residential. These developments reflect the dynamic environment in which Equity Residential is operating.
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