REIT Report Card · August 15, 2026
Equity Residential is a large apartment landlord, $25.4B, about $218 million a day. The year was muted (+3.1%). You get a 4.26% indicated yield, 60.4% EBITDA margins, and 4.52x Net Debt / EBITDA. CapEx was only 0.4% of operating cash flow in this TTM period, so cash conversion looks clean.
| Category | Grade | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| Liquidity | A- | Enough daily volume for most individual sizes |
| Balance Sheet | B+ | A fair amount of debt, still in a range these names live with |
| Debt Service | A- | Interest is covered with a useful cushion |
| Operating Quality | A- | Strong operating profits |
| Cash Generation | A- | Good cash generation versus the current price |
| Dividend | B+ | Useful income, and coverage looks okay |
| Valuation | B+ | A moderate price. Not a bargain |
| Recent Performance | B+ | Up over the past year, but not a huge move |
| Overall | B+ | A steady apartment landlord with a quiet year |
1. Valuation
This is the price of EQR's operating earnings, counting both the equity and the debt.
At about 17.9x EV / EBITDA, EQR screens cheaper than a lot of large REITs.
Bottom line: The multiple leaves more room for disappointment than at the pricey peers.
2. Leverage
For every $1 of annual EBITDA EQR generates, it has about $4.52 of net debt.
For a REIT, this is usually the first leverage number worth reading.
Bottom line: EQR uses a fair amount of debt, but the load looks manageable relative to earnings.
3. Debt Exposure
About 25% of EQR's total enterprise value is net debt.
That gives equity investors a thinner equity cushion than lower-debt peers.
Bottom line: EQR's equity value makes the capital structure less debt-heavy than Net Debt / EBITDA alone might suggest.
4. Interest Protection
EQR generates about 5.76x of EBITDA for every $1 of estimated interest.
Higher coverage usually means a REIT can absorb higher rates, refinancing costs, or a soft patch in the properties more easily.
Bottom line: Interest looks well covered.
5. Operating Profitability
EQR turns about 60 cents of every revenue dollar into EBITDA.
Bottom line: The properties and the platform make a lot of money on this measure.
6. Cash Generation
EQR generated operating cash flow equal to about 6.2% of its current equity value.
For every $100 of current equity value, the company generated about $6.19 of trailing operating cash flow.
Bottom line: You're getting a lot of cash relative to the price you're paying.
7. Cash Conversion
About 83% of EQR's EBITDA turned into operating cash flow.
Bottom line: Most of the reported operating earnings are showing up as actual cash.
8. Dividend Safety
On our standardized math, operating cash flow covers EQR's annualized dividend about 1.45x.
EQR generates roughly 1.45x of operating cash flow for every $1.00 of estimated dividends.
Bottom line: The dividend looks covered by operating cash flow, though the margin isn't huge under this conservative method.
9. Dividend Yield
EQR is not mainly a high-income REIT.
Put $10,000 into EQR at the current indicated yield and you'd get about $426 a year if the dividend stays the same.
Bottom line: People who buy EQR are usually after the mix of a check plus the assets, not the fattest current yield here.
10. Market Liquidity
About $218 million of EQR stock changes hands on an average trading day.
Bottom line: EQR trades about $218 million on an ordinary day.
If you put $10,000 into EQR today, based on the numbers in this report:
EQR has $8.57B of total debt against $0.04B of cash (4.52x net debt / EBITDA). Interest coverage of 5.8x takes some pressure off that load.
At 17.9x EV / EBITDA, the multiple sits in the middle of this list. The shares are not a deep-value screen.
OCF dividend coverage is 1.45x and the indicated yield is 4.26%. The dividend looks supported, but the margin isn't huge, and capex definitions still matter.
Average daily dollar volume is $218.3M, active enough for most individual-sized trades.
Equity Residential had a quiet year (+3.1%) and still looks like a grown-up apartment landlord: 4.26% yield, 4.52x leverage, 0.4% of OCF spent on capex.
CapEx was 0.4% of OCF in this TTM period, and interest coverage is 5.8x. The apartment math looks tidy. The +3.1% year just was not exciting.
17.9x EV / EBITDA, 4.52x leverage, 1.45x coverage, 4.3% yield. A grown-up apartment card. The yield helps, without making the stock cheap.
| Metric | EQR |
|---|---|
| Market Capitalization | $25.35B |
| Enterprise Value | $33.87B |
| Share Price | $65.97 |
| Revenue (TTM) | $3.13B |
| EBITDA (TTM) | $1.89B |
| EBIT (TTM) | $0.88B |
| Operating Cash Flow (TTM) | $1.57B |
| CapEx (TTM) | $0.01B |
| Cash | $0.04B |
| Total Debt | $8.57B |
| Average Daily $ Volume | $218.3M |
| Daily Equity Turnover | 0.86% |
| EV / EBITDA | 17.92x |
| EBITDA Yield on EV | 5.58% |
| EBITDA Margin | 60.38% |
| Net Debt / EBITDA | 4.52x |
| Net Debt / Market Cap | 33.66% |
| Net Debt / Enterprise Value | 25.20% |
| Debt / Total Capital | 25.27% |
| Cash / Debt | 0.42% |
| EV Premium to Equity | 33.61% |
| Operating Cash Flow Yield | 6.19% |
| OCF / EBITDA Conversion | 83.07% |
| CapEx / Operating Cash Flow | 0.35% |
| CapEx / Revenue | 0.18% |
| Post-CapEx Cash Yield | 6.17% |
| Dividend / OCF Burden | 0.69x |
| OCF Dividend Coverage | 1.45x |
| Implied Interest / Revenue | 10.48% |
| EBITDA Interest Coverage | 5.76x |
| Reported Interest Coverage (source) | 2.69x |
| Dividend Yield | 4.26% |
| 52-Week Price Change | +3.09% |
| Approx. 1-Year Total Carry | +7.35% |
| Beta (5Y) | 0.75 |
We grade each REIT on several things at once. A cheap multiple next to heavy debt is a different story than a cheap multiple next to a light load.
Financial Strength looks at leverage, how much of the firm is debt, daily trading volume, and whether earnings cover interest.
Operating Quality looks at the EBITDA margin and how much of those earnings show up as cash.
Dividend Quality looks at the indicated yield, whether operating cash flow covers the payout, and how heavy the payout is versus cash.
Valuation is what you pay for the REIT's earnings: enterprise value over EBITDA.
Market Performance looks at last year's share-price change and how much stock trades on an ordinary day.
A hotel and a net-lease REIT will not look the same on these measures, and they should not. Read each name next to peers in the same property type.
Read the full methodology and the grading bands.
The numbers come from trailing financials and market data we pulled for this report. Some ratios we calculate ourselves. They are not always the figures the company highlights.
We use them so these 20 REITs can be lined up on the same math. That does not replace company-reported FFO, AFFO, same-store NOI, occupancy, lease schedules, or NAV.
Source: https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/eqr/statistics/
Report date: August 15, 2026
This is for information only. It isn't investment advice, a buy or sell recommendation, or a judgment about whether any of these REITs fit your situation.