Wells Fargo & Company Lowers Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) Price Target to $279.00

Key Points

• Wells Fargo & Company has lowered the price target for Essex Property Trust from $325.00 to $279.00, maintaining an "equal weight" rating on the stock.
• Numerous analysts have recently adjusted their price targets for Essex Property Trust, with Truist Financial and Morgan Stanley also reducing their targets significantly.
• Currently, Essex Property Trust holds a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $301.42, with seven analysts rating it as Buy and eleven as Hold.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS - Get Free Report) had its price objective dropped by research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $325.00 to $279.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "equal weight" rating on the real estate investment trust's stock. Wells Fargo & Company's target price would indicate a potential upside of 5.18% from the stock's previous close.

ESS has been the subject of a number of other reports. Truist Financial reduced 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 note on Tuesday, August 12th. UBS Group reduced 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 note on Tuesday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley reduced 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 note on Wednesday, August 13th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Essex Property Trust from $320.00 to $309.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Essex Property Trust from $314.00 to $293.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Essex Property Trust presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $301.42.

Essex Property Trust Price Performance

Shares of ESS stock opened at $265.26 on Wednesday. Essex Property Trust has a 12-month low of $243.85 and a 12-month high of $317.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.82 and a beta of 0.80. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average of $275.22 and a 200-day moving average of $282.90.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $4.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.99 by $0.04. The company 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 previous year, the business earned $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. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Essex Property Trust will post 15.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Essex Property Trust

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Essex Property Trust by 0.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,493,313 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,973,805,000 after acquiring an additional 53,039 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Essex Property Trust by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,388,169 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,540,570,000 after purchasing an additional 129,806 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Essex Property Trust by 151,452.8% in the 2nd quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,978,012 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $843,969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,976,047 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Essex Property Trust by 66.5% in the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 1,096,619 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Essex Property Trust by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,825,007 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $515,226,000 after purchasing an additional 23,565 shares in the last quarter. 96.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Essex Property Trust Company 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.

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