Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR) has provided an operating update, indicating that its same store results continue to exceed expectations. The company's earnings per share (EPS) and funds from operations (FFO) per share are expected to be in the bottom half of the full year guidance ranges due to a litigation reserve adjustment made during the first quarter. Normalized FFO per share, same store revenue, and same store net operating income (NOI) are trending towards the top of their respective full-year guidance ranges.
In terms of residential same store operating statistics, for 77,211 same store apartment units, the physical occupancy has increased to 96.5% in May 2024 from 96.3% in Q1 2024 and 95.8% in Q4 2023. The percentage of residents renewing by quarter/month has decreased to 57.0% in May 2024 from 61.1% in Q1 2024.
The new lease change has improved to 0.4% in May 2024, compared to a decrease of 2.2% in Q1 2024 and a decrease of 4.6% in Q4 2023. The renewal rate achieved has increased to 5.0% in May 2024 from 4.7% in Q1 2024. Additionally, the blended rate has also shown improvement, increasing to 2.9% in May 2024, from 1.6% in Q1 2024.
These figures indicate positive trends in the company's residential same store operating statistics, showing improvements in physical occupancy, new lease change, renewal rate achieved, and blended rate.
Equity Residential, a member of the S&P 500, owns or has investments in 299 properties consisting of 79,688 apartment units, with a strong presence in cities like Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Seattle, San Francisco, and southern California, as well as an expanding presence in Denver, Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth, and Austin. The market has reacted to these announcements by moving the company's shares -1.6% to a price of $64.64. For more information, read the company's full 8-K submission here.
