American Century Companies Inc. Reduces Holdings in Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. $EPRT

Key Points

• American Century Companies Inc. reduced its holdings in Essential Properties Realty Trust by 34.6% during the first quarter, now owning approximately $27.9 million in shares.
• Invesco Ltd. increased its stake by 51.8% during the same period, now holding over 7 million shares valued at approximately $230.5 million.
• Essential Properties Realty Trust recently raised its quarterly dividend to $0.30 per share, maintaining a yield of 3.8% despite a high payout ratio of 101.69%.

American Century Companies Inc. lowered its stake in Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EPRT - Free Report) by 34.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 855,259 shares of the company's stock after selling 452,238 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned approximately 0.43% of Essential Properties Realty Trust worth $27,916,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Franchise Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of Essential Properties Realty Trust in the first quarter worth $42,000. Quarry LP grew its position in Essential Properties Realty Trust by 439.4% in the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,451 shares of the company's stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 1,182 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Essential Properties Realty Trust in the first quarter valued at about $80,000. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. bought a new position in Essential Properties Realty Trust in the fourth quarter valued at about $100,000. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc grew its position in Essential Properties Realty Trust by 44.6% in the fourth quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc now owns 3,325 shares of the company's stock valued at $104,000 after acquiring an additional 1,025 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.98% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Essential Properties Realty Trust

In other news, VP A Joseph Peil sold 13,227 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.96, for a total transaction of $435,961.92. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 76,590 shares in the company, valued at $2,524,406.40. The trade was a 14.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.77% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EPRT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Essential Properties Realty Trust from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Essential Properties Realty Trust from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Essential Properties Realty Trust from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on Essential Properties Realty Trust from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $35.34.

Essential Properties Realty Trust Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of Essential Properties Realty Trust stock traded down $0.31 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $30.96. The company had a trading volume of 135,406 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,663,970. The firm has a market cap of $6.13 billion, a PE ratio of 26.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $31.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 5.67 and a quick ratio of 5.67. Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.44 and a fifty-two week high of $34.88.

Essential Properties Realty Trust (NYSE:EPRT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $129.11 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $131.72 million. Essential Properties Realty Trust had a return on equity of 6.20% and a net margin of 44.48%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 25.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.47 earnings per share. Essential Properties Realty Trust has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.860-1.890 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Essential Properties Realty Trust Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This is a positive change from Essential Properties Realty Trust's previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 30th. Essential Properties Realty Trust's dividend payout ratio is presently 101.69%.

About Essential Properties Realty Trust

Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc, a real estate company, acquires, owns, and manages single-tenant properties in the United States. The company leases its properties to middle-market companies, such as restaurants, car washes, automotive services, medical and dental services, convenience stores, equipment rental, entertainment, early childhood education, grocery, and health and fitness on a long-term basis.