Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from sixteen brokerages, with one sell, nine hold, and six buy ratings.
• The average twelve-month price target for Essex Property Trust is $297.17, reflecting a decrease from various analysts' insights.
• Essex Property Trust recently announced a quarterly dividend of $2.57, yielding 3.9% with a payout ratio of 82.64%.

Shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS - Get Free Report) have received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the sixteen brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have assigned a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $297.1667.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $295.00 to $283.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Essex Property Trust from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $315.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $304.00 to $285.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $297.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered shares of Essex Property Trust from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their target price for the company from $355.00 to $275.00 in a research report on Monday, August 4th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Essex Property Trust

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ESS. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 151,452.8% in the second quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,978,012 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $843,969,000 after buying an additional 2,976,047 shares during the period. Wealthquest Corp acquired a new position in shares of Essex Property Trust in the first quarter worth about $384,606,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 66.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,746,242 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $841,916,000 after buying an additional 1,096,619 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Essex Property Trust in the second quarter worth about $239,442,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 35,500.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 448,205 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $137,406,000 after buying an additional 446,946 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.51% of the company's stock.

Essex Property Trust Stock Down 0.3%

ESS stock opened at $263.92 on Friday. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $267.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $278.20. The stock has a market cap of $17.00 billion, a PE ratio of 21.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.80 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16. Essex Property Trust has a fifty-two week low of $243.85 and a fifty-two week high of $316.29.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $4.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.99 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $465.84 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $466.47 million. Essex Property Trust had a net margin of 43.51% and a return on equity of 13.98%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.94 EPS. Essex Property Trust has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 3.890-3.990 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 15.800-16.020 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Essex Property Trust will post 15.96 EPS for the current year.

Essex Property Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be paid a $2.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $10.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Essex Property Trust's payout ratio is currently 82.64%.

About Essex Property Trust

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.

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