WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Equity Residential (EQR) reported that its third-quarter Funds from Operations available to Common Shares and Units or FFO increased to $196.59 million from $166.23 million in the year ago quarter. FFO was $0.63 per share compared to $0.55 per share in the third quarter of 2010. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.62 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Normalized FFO was $0.62 per share compared to $0.57 per share in the same period of 2010.
Net income available to Common Shares surged to $104.38 million, from $25.17 million in the same quarter last year. Earnings were $0.35 per share compared to $0.09 per share in the third quarter of 2010. The difference is due primarily to higher gains from property sales in 2011, the company said.
Revenues for the quarter rose to $511.96 million from $453.96 million in the prior year quarter. Sixteen analysts had consensus revenue estimate of $509.35 million for the quarter.
The company has established a Normalized FFO guidance range of $0.63 to $0.67 per share for the fourth quarter of 2011. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $0.66 per share for the fourth-quarter.
For the full year 2011, the company now expects normalized FFO of $2.41 - $2.45 per share, compared to its prior estimate of $2.40 - $2.45 per share. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $2.42 per share for fiscal 2011.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX