ESS vs. SUI, MAA, UDR, ELS, CPT, EQR, AVB, HST, AMH, and DOC
Should you be buying Essex Property Trust stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Essex Property Trust include Sun Communities (SUI), Mid-America Apartment Communities (MAA), UDR (UDR), Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS), Camden Property Trust (CPT), Equity Residential (EQR), AvalonBay Communities (AVB), Host Hotels & Resorts (HST), American Homes 4 Rent (AMH), and Healthpeak Properties (DOC). These companies are all part of the "real estate investment trusts" industry.
Sun Communities (NYSE:SUI) and Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, media sentiment, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.
99.6% of Sun Communities shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of Sun Communities shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of Essex Property Trust shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Essex Property Trust received 322 more outperform votes than Sun Communities when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.19% of users gave Sun Communities an outperform vote while only 57.09% of users gave Essex Property Trust an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Sun Communities had 4 more articles in the media than Essex Property Trust. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Sun Communities and 7 mentions for Essex Property Trust. Sun Communities' average media sentiment score of 1.12 beat Essex Property Trust's score of 1.11 indicating that Essex Property Trust is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Sun Communities presently has a consensus price target of $141.17, suggesting a potential upside of 18.55%. Essex Property Trust has a consensus price target of $245.37, suggesting a potential downside of 0.63%. Given Essex Property Trust's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Sun Communities is more favorable than Essex Property Trust.
Essex Property Trust has a net margin of 24.31% compared to Essex Property Trust's net margin of 4.40%. Sun Communities' return on equity of 7.10% beat Essex Property Trust's return on equity.
Sun Communities pays an annual dividend of $3.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Essex Property Trust pays an annual dividend of $9.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Sun Communities pays out 329.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Essex Property Trust pays out 155.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Sun Communities has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years and Essex Property Trust has raised its dividend for 30 consecutive years. Essex Property Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Essex Property Trust has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Sun Communities. Essex Property Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sun Communities, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Sun Communities has a beta of 0.8, suggesting that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Essex Property Trust has a beta of 0.8, suggesting that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Essex Property Trust beats Sun Communities on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ESS and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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