Baird Financial Group Inc. Boosts Holdings in Essex Property Trust, Inc. $ESS

Key Points

• Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Essex Property Trust by 1.9%, now owning approximately $24.73 million worth of shares.
• Several institutional investors, including Wealthquest Corp and Price T Rowe Associates Inc., have significantly increased their stakes in Essex Property Trust during the first quarter.
• Essex Property Trust reported an EPS of $4.03 for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' estimates of $3.99, with guidance for Q3 2025 set between 3.890-3.990 EPS.

Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS - Free Report) by 1.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 80,654 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 1,529 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc. owned 0.13% of Essex Property Trust worth $24,726,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Essex Property Trust by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,440,274 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $3,200,675,000 after purchasing an additional 87,117 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Essex Property Trust by 66.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,746,242 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $841,916,000 after purchasing an additional 1,096,619 shares in the last quarter. Wealthquest Corp bought a new stake in shares of Essex Property Trust during the 1st quarter valued at about $384,606,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Essex Property Trust by 10.6% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,247,133 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $382,334,000 after purchasing an additional 119,303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Essex Property Trust by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 854,606 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $261,205,000 after purchasing an additional 52,793 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.51% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ESS. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Essex Property Trust from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $301.50 to $305.50 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $297.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Piper Sandler lowered Essex Property Trust from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $355.00 to $275.00 in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised Essex Property Trust from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $315.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $300.44.

Essex Property Trust Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of Essex Property Trust stock traded up $3.59 on Friday, reaching $268.09. The company's stock had a trading volume of 418,315 shares, compared to its average volume of 389,105. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a 52 week low of $243.85 and a 52 week high of $317.73. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $272.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $281.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16. The company has a market capitalization of $17.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.55, a P/E/G ratio of 6.80 and a beta of 0.83.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $4.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.99 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $465.84 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $466.47 million. Essex Property Trust had a return on equity of 13.98% and a net margin of 43.51%.During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.94 earnings per share. Essex Property Trust has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 3.890-3.990 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 15.800-16.020 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Essex Property Trust, Inc. will post 15.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Essex Property Trust Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be given a $2.57 dividend. This represents a $10.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 30th. Essex Property Trust's payout ratio is 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.