Equity Commonwealth (NYSE:EQC – Get Rating) was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Zacks.com reports. The firm presently has a $31.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Zacks Investment Research‘s price objective suggests a potential upside of 10.87% from the stock’s previous close.

According to Zacks, “Equity Commonwealth is an internally managed and self-advised real estate investment trust. It primarily owns office buildings located throughout the United States. The majority of its portfolio consists of office buildings located in central business districts, or CBDs, of major metropolitan markets. Equity Commonwealth, formerly known as CommonWealth REIT, is based in Chicago. “

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Equity Commonwealth from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 11th. TheStreet lowered shares of Equity Commonwealth from a “c” rating to a “d+” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 10th.

Shares of NYSE EQC traded up $0.74 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $27.96. The company had a trading volume of 594,634 shares, compared to its average volume of 877,198. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.57. Equity Commonwealth has a fifty-two week low of $25.00 and a fifty-two week high of $28.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -254.18 and a beta of 0.22.

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its position in Equity Commonwealth by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 179,549 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,650,000 after acquiring an additional 7,448 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA raised its stake in Equity Commonwealth by 12.7% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 65,008 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,684,000 after purchasing an additional 7,345 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Equity Commonwealth by 22.7% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 130,918 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,391,000 after purchasing an additional 24,246 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Equity Commonwealth by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,652,906 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $42,811,000 after purchasing an additional 25,684 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Equity Commonwealth by 66.3% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,786,175 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $46,405,000 after purchasing an additional 712,369 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.94% of the company’s stock.

Equity Commonwealth Company Profile (Get Rating)

Equity Commonwealth (NYSE: EQC) is a Chicago based, internally managed and self-advised real estate investment trust (REIT) with commercial office properties in the United States. EQC’s same property portfolio is comprised of 4 properties and 1.5 million square feet.

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