2 Sizzling Hot Financial Stocks: Equity Residential (EQR), Mastercard Incorporated (MA)

Equity Residential (EQR) ended last trading session with a change of 0.98 percent. It trades at an average volume of 2.07M shares versus 3.13M shares recorded at the end of last trading session. The share price of $62.57 is at a distance of 8.22 percent from its 52-week low and down -11.09 percent versus its peak. The company has a market cap of $23.03B and currently has 368.11M shares outstanding. The share price is currently 0.29 percent versus its SMA20, 0.08 percent versus its SMA50, and 0.77 percent versus its SMA200. The stock has a weekly performance of 0.24 percent and is -2.78 percent year-to-date as of the recent close.

On February 1, 2017 Equity Residential (EQR) reported results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2016. All per share results are reported as available to common shares/units on a diluted basis.

“Equity Residential continued its long and successful track record of investor centric capital allocation activity in 2016 with the sale of nearly 30,000 apartment units and the return of $4 billion to our shareholders in special dividends,” said David J. Neithercut, Equity Residential’s President and CEO. “These highly strategic sales capitalized on extraordinary investor demand for multifamily assets which enabled Equity Residential to maximize value for its shareholders while completing the transformation of its portfolio into one focused primarily on urban and highly walkable, close-in suburban assets.”

“From an operating perspective, same store revenue growth which began to slow in 2016 will continue to weaken in 2017 due to new apartment supply and slowing growth in higher paying jobs,” said Mr. Neithercut. “However, extraordinarily strong demand for rental housing driven by favorable demographics, household growth, low unemployment and rising incomes continue to support the long term outlook for rental housing in our core markets and the prospects for excellent risk adjusted returns to our shareholders.”

Mastercard Incorporated (MA) recently recorded 0.29 percent change and currently at $111.53 is 29.22 percent away from its 52-week low and down -1.23 percent versus its peak. It has a past 5-day performance of 0.15 percent and trades at an average volume of 3.21M shares. The stock has a 1-month performance of 3.94 percent and is 8.24 percent year-to-date as of the recent close. There were about 1.07B shares outstanding which made its market cap $119.77B. The share price is currently 1.12 percent versus its SMA20, 2.77 percent versus its SMA50, and 10.54 percent versus its SMA200.

On March 13, 2017 Mastercard Incorporated (MA) announced the appointment of Randall Tucker as the company’s chief inclusion officer, effective April 3, 2017. In this role, he will evolve and implement initiatives that deliver on the company’s integrated global diversity and inclusion strategy.

Most recently, Tucker served at the senior director of inclusion and diversity at Darden Restaurants Inc., where he led the development of a company-wide inclusion strategy to more closely align to the business and support an environment where all employees could reach their greatest potential.