Essex Property Trust, Inc. $ESS Shares Purchased by Resolution Capital Ltd

Key Points

• Resolution Capital Ltd increased its stake in Essex Property Trust, acquiring an additional 304,936 shares, bringing its total holdings to 821,968 shares, which represent 4.9% of its investment portfolio.
• Essex Property Trust will pay a quarterly dividend of $2.57 per share on October 15th, yielding an annualized 3.8%, with a payout ratio of 82.64%.
• The company's recent earnings report showed EPS of $4.03, exceeding analysts' estimates, and it has set guidance of 15.800-16.020 EPS for FY 2025.

Resolution Capital Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS - Free Report) by 59.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 821,968 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 304,936 shares during the quarter. Essex Property Trust comprises approximately 4.9% of Resolution Capital Ltd's investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Resolution Capital Ltd owned about 1.28% of Essex Property Trust worth $251,991,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV boosted its position in Essex Property Trust by 0.9% during the first quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV now owns 17,602 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $5,396,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in Essex Property Trust by 23.2% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 81,952 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $25,124,000 after purchasing an additional 15,456 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its position in Essex Property Trust by 0.3% during the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 543,397 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $166,589,000 after purchasing an additional 1,656 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Essex Property Trust by 834.0% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 62,954 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $19,300,000 after purchasing an additional 56,214 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in Essex Property Trust by 1.8% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 100,209 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $29,497,000 after purchasing an additional 1,787 shares during the period. 96.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Essex Property Trust from $285.00 to $279.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $315.00 to $317.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Piper Sandler cut shares of Essex Property Trust from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $355.00 to $275.00 in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $335.00 to $298.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $314.00 to $293.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $300.44.

Essex Property Trust Price Performance

ESS stock traded up $3.03 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $268.74. The company had a trading volume of 256,432 shares, compared to its average volume of 385,743. The company has a market capitalization of $17.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.83 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $271.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $281.19. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a 1-year low of $243.85 and a 1-year high of $317.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $4.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.99 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $465.84 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $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 research analysts expect that Essex Property Trust, Inc. will post 15.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Essex Property Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be paid 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%.

Essex Property Trust Profile

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.