Equity Residential Q2 FFO Rises; Guides Q3 Normalized FFO; Revises FY View

(RTTNews) - Equity Residential (EQR) Tuesday reported that its second-quarter funds from operations, or FFO available to Common Shares and Units rose to $290.78 million or $0.77 per share from $274.62 million or $0.73 per share in the prior-year quarter.

Normalized FFO available to Common Shares and Units for the quarter was $295.88 million or $0.78 per share, higher than the $267.27 million or $0.71 per share in the year-ago quarter. On average, 20 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report FFO of $0.77 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net income available to common shares plunged to $111.65 million or $0.31 per share from $323.72 million or $0.90 per share last year. The difference is due primarily to higher gains on property sales in the second quarter of 2013 partially offset by higher depreciation expense in the second quarter of 2013.

Revenues for the quarter grew to $652.57 million from $617.22 million in the same quarter last year. Analysts expected revenues of $644.42 million.

Looking ahead to the third quarter, the company forecasts in range of $0.77 to $0.81 per share. Analysts currently expect first-quarter FFO of $0.80 per share.

For the fiscal 2014, the company revised normalized FFO view to a range of $3.08 to $3.12 per share from prior range of $3.03 to $3.13 per share. Street is currently looking for full-year 2014 FFO of $3.09 per share.