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Compare stocks with our powerful stock comparison tool. Analyze fundamentals, price performance, and key financial indicators to make informed investment decisions. Our tool lets you compare up to ten stocks side by side based on Performance Charts, Price & Volume, MarketRank™, Analyst Ratings, Sales & Book Value, Profitability & Earnings, Dividends, Debt, Ownership, Headlines, and more. Simply enter up to ten stock symbols (e.g., BAC, JPM, WFC, C, GS) to get started and uncover top investment opportunities.

Comparative Price Performance Over Time

Compare Price & Volume

Company	Current Price	50-Day Moving Average	52-Week Range	Market Cap	Beta	Avg. Volume	Today's Volume
ESS Essex Property Trust	$264.05 +0.6%	$277.33	$243.85 ▼ $317.73	$17.02B	0.8	490,280 shs	45,883 shs
HIW Highwoods Properties	$29.47 -0.1%	$30.44	$24.18 ▼ $36.78	$3.18B	1.21	996,677 shs	31,567 shs
VNQ Vanguard Real Estate ETF	$90.84 +0.4%	$89.90	$76.92 ▼ $99.58	$34.14B	0.91	3.55 million shs	425,675 shs

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Compare Price Performance

Company	1-Day Performance	7-Day Performance	30-Day Performance	90-Day Performance	1-Year Performance
ESS Essex Property Trust	+2.15%	+3.26%	-8.77%	-5.59%	-8.11%
HIW Highwoods Properties	+1.84%	+1.47%	-2.94%	+1.00%	-5.98%
VNQ Vanguard Real Estate ETF	+1.72%	+1.65%	+0.56%	+3.48%	-1.79%

Compare MarketRank™

Company	Overall Score	Analyst's Opinion	Short Interest Score	Dividend Strength	ESG Score	News and Social Media Sentiment	Company Ownership	Earnings & Valuation
ESS Essex Property Trust	4.5666 of 5 stars	3.2	2.0	4.2	2.5	3.4	1.7	1.3
HIW Highwoods Properties	3.0133 of 5 stars	1.1	1.0	2.5	2.4	3.3	1.7	1.3
VNQ Vanguard Real Estate ETF	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Compare Analyst Forecasts

Company	Consensus Rating Score	Consensus Rating	Consensus Price Target	% Upside from Current Price
ESS Essex Property Trust	2.32	Hold	$302.86	14.70% Upside
HIW Highwoods Properties	2.17	Hold	$32.00	8.60% Upside
VNQ Vanguard Real Estate ETF	2.67	Moderate Buy	$90.44	-0.44% Downside

Current Analyst Ratings Breakdown

Latest ESS, VNQ, and HIW Analyst Ratings

Date	Company	Brokerage	Action	Rating	Price Target
8/13/2025	ESS Essex Property Trust	Morgan Stanley Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the recommendation accuracy rating	Lower Price Target	Equal Weight ➝ Equal Weight	$304.00 ➝ $285.00
8/12/2025	ESS Essex Property Trust	Truist Financial Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the recommendation accuracy rating	Lower Price Target	Hold ➝ Hold	$295.00 ➝ $283.00
8/12/2025	ESS Essex Property Trust	Barclays Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the recommendation accuracy rating	Lower Price Target	Equal Weight ➝ Equal Weight	$335.00 ➝ $298.00
8/12/2025	ESS Essex Property Trust	Evercore ISI Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the recommendation accuracy rating	Lower Price Target	In-Line ➝ In-Line	$285.00 ➝ $279.00
8/5/2025	ESS Essex Property Trust	Scotiabank Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the recommendation accuracy rating	Lower Price Target	Sector Outperform ➝ Sector Outperform	$320.00 ➝ $309.00
8/4/2025	ESS Essex Property Trust	Piper Sandler Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the recommendation accuracy rating	Downgrade	Overweight ➝ Neutral	$355.00 ➝ $275.00
7/31/2025	ESS Essex Property Trust	Royal Bank Of Canada Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the recommendation accuracy rating	Boost Price Target	Outperform ➝ Outperform	$306.00 ➝ $307.00
7/30/2025	ESS Essex Property Trust	Stifel Nicolaus Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the recommendation accuracy rating	Boost Price Target	Hold ➝ Hold	$301.50 ➝ $305.50
7/15/2025	ESS Essex Property Trust	UBS Group Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the recommendation accuracy rating	Lower Price Target	Neutral ➝ Neutral	$297.00 ➝ $295.00
7/14/2025	HIW Highwoods Properties	Mizuho Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the recommendation accuracy rating	Boost Price Target	Neutral ➝ Neutral	$29.00 ➝ $30.00
7/2/2025	HIW Highwoods Properties	Truist Financial Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the recommendation accuracy rating	Downgrade	Buy ➝ Hold	$32.00

(Data available from 8/20/2022 forward. View 10+ years of historical ratings with our analyst ratings screener.)

Compare Sales & Book Value

Company	Annual Revenue	Price/Sales	Cashflow	Price/Cash	Book Value	Price/Book
ESS Essex Property Trust	$1.84B	9.24	$21.29 per share	12.40	$90.15 per share	2.93
HIW Highwoods Properties	$825.86M	3.86	$3.93 per share	7.50	$21.74 per share	1.36
VNQ Vanguard Real Estate ETF	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Compare Profitability & Earnings

Company	Net Income	EPS	Trailing P/E Ratio	Forward P/E Ratio	P/E Growth	Net Margins	Return on Equity (ROE)	Return on Assets (ROA)	Next Earnings Date
ESS Essex Property Trust	$741.52M	$12.44	21.24	15.93	6.59	43.51%	13.98%	6.16%	11/4/2025 (Estimated)
HIW Highwoods Properties	$102.25M	$1.19	24.75	8.21	N/A	16.15%	5.57%	2.16%	10/28/2025 (Estimated)
VNQ Vanguard Real Estate ETF	N/A	N/A	35.58	∞	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Latest ESS, VNQ, and HIW Earnings

Date	Quarter	Company	Consensus Estimate	Reported EPS	Beat/Miss	Gap EPS	Revenue Estimate	Actual Revenue	Details
7/29/2025	Q2 2025	ESS Essex Property Trust	$3.99	$4.03	+$0.04	$4.03	$466.47 million	$465.84 million
7/29/2025	Q2 2025	HIW Highwoods Properties	$0.85	$0.89	+$0.04	$0.89	$203.22 million	$200.60 million

Compare Dividends

Company	Annual Payout	Dividend Yield	3-Year Dividend Growth	Payout Ratio	Years of Consecutive Growth
ESS Essex Property Trust	$10.28	3.89%	N/A	82.64%	31 Years
HIW Highwoods Properties	$2.00	6.79%	N/A	168.07%	N/A
VNQ Vanguard Real Estate ETF	$3.46	3.81%	N/A	N/A	N/A

Latest ESS, VNQ, and HIW Dividends

Announcement	Company	Period	Amount	Yield	Ex-Dividend Date	Record Date	Payable Date
7/25/2025	HIW Highwoods Properties	quarterly	$0.50	6.6%	8/18/2025	8/18/2025	9/9/2025

(Data available from 1/1/2013 forward)

Compare Debt

Company	Debt-to-Equity Ratio	Current Ratio	Quick Ratio
ESS Essex Property Trust	1.16	1.09	1.09
HIW Highwoods Properties	1.42	1.38	1.38
VNQ Vanguard Real Estate ETF	N/A	N/A	N/A

Compare Ownership

Institutional Ownership

Company	Institutional Ownership
ESS Essex Property Trust	96.51%
HIW Highwoods Properties	96.31%
VNQ Vanguard Real Estate ETF	60.03%

Insider Ownership

Company	Insider Ownership
ESS Essex Property Trust	3.46%
HIW Highwoods Properties	1.90%
VNQ Vanguard Real Estate ETF	N/A

Compare Miscellaneous Stats

Company	Employees	Shares Outstanding	Free Float	Optionable
ESS Essex Property Trust	1,715	64.40 million	62.18 million	Optionable
HIW Highwoods Properties	340	108.07 million	106.02 million	Optionable
VNQ Vanguard Real Estate ETF	N/A	374.89 million	N/A	Not Optionable

ESS, VNQ, and HIW Headlines

Recent News About These Companies

Top 13 REIT ETFs For Retirement

August 17 at 7:57 PM | msn.com

5 ETFs to Benefit if Fed Cuts Rate in September

August 11, 2025 | zacks.com

VNQ: The 'King Kong' Of REIT ETFs

August 4, 2025 | seekingalpha.com

These REITs Could Potentially Crush The Vanguard Real Estate ETF

August 4, 2025 | seekingalpha.com

Should You Buy These ETFs Before the Fed Cuts Rates?

August 1, 2025 | kiplinger.comK

Moving Averages of the Ivy Portfolio & S&P 500: July 2025

July 31, 2025 | etftrends.comE

Buy Alert: Well-Covered 8% Yields That The Market Is Overlooking

July 18, 2025 | seekingalpha.com

Cheaper Than 2008—Is This Wall Street's Forgotten Sector A Screaming 'Buy'?

July 16, 2025 | msn.com

VNQ: Data Centers Are Carrying Commercial Real Estate

July 16, 2025 | seekingalpha.com

All-Time Highs for Stocks: These 2 ETFs Still Look Undervalued

July 14, 2025 | fool.com

Ready to Retire? Rotate Into These 3 High-Yield ETFs Now

July 8, 2025 | 247wallst.com

1 No-Brainer Vanguard ETF to Invest $1,000 Into This July

July 7, 2025 | fool.com

Moving Averages of the Ivy Portfolio & S&P 500: June 2025

June 30, 2025 | etftrends.comE

REIT Lost Decade: The Long-Tail Effect Of Free Money

June 16, 2025 | seekingalpha.com

Sector ETFs Set to Gain as Inflation Cools in May

June 12, 2025 | zacks.com

3 Top Dividend ETFs to Buy in June for a Lifetime of Passive Income

June 1, 2025 | fool.com

Moving Averages of the Ivy Portfolio & S&P 500: May 2025

May 30, 2025 | etftrends.comE

VNQ: If You Think REITs Are Safe, It's Time To Rethink (Rating Downgrade)

May 30, 2025 | seekingalpha.com

2 Top Vanguard ETFs to Buy With $500 Right Now

May 24, 2025 | fool.com

How to Invest in Real Estate ETFs

May 23, 2025 | fool.com

New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

Media Sentiment Over Time

Top Headlines

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ESS, VNQ, and HIW Company Descriptions

Essex Property Trust NYSE:ESS

$264.05 +1.69 (+0.64%)

As of 10:26 AM Eastern

Essex Property Trust, Inc., an S&P 500 company, is a fully integrated real estate investment trust (REIT) that acquires, develops, redevelops, and manages multifamily residential properties in selected West Coast markets. Essex currently has ownership interests in 252 apartment communities comprising approximately 62,000 apartment homes with an additional property in active development.

Highwoods Properties NYSE:HIW

$29.47 -0.02 (-0.08%)

As of 10:26 AM Eastern

Highwoods Properties, Inc., headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded (NYSE:HIW), fully-integrated office real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa. Highwoods is in the work-placemaking business. We believe that by creating environments and experiences where the best and brightest can achieve together what they cannot apart, we can deliver greater value to our customers, their teammates and, in turn, our stakeholders.

Vanguard Real Estate ETF NYSEARCA:VNQ

$90.84 +0.40 (+0.44%)

As of 10:26 AM Eastern

Vanguard REIT ETF (the Fund) is an open-end investment company. The Fund invests in stocks issued by real estate investment trusts (REITs), companies that purchase office buildings, hotels, and other real property. It tracks the return of the MSCI US RIT Index, a gauge of real estate stocks. The Vanguard Group, Inc. provides investment advisory services to the Fund.

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Comparative Price Performance Over Time