Essex Property Trust (ESS) Competitors

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) and AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, profitability, earnings, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in ESS or AVB?

96.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.6% of AvalonBay Communities shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of AvalonBay Communities shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is ESS or AVB more profitable?

Essex Property Trust has a net margin of 41.79% compared to AvalonBay Communities' net margin of 37.13%. Essex Property Trust's return on equity of 13.05% beat AvalonBay Communities' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Essex Property Trust	41.79%	13.05%	5.82%
AvalonBay Communities	37.13%	9.15%	5.15%

Is ESS or AVB a better dividend stock?

Essex Property Trust pays an annual dividend of $10.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. AvalonBay Communities pays an annual dividend of $7.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Essex Property Trust pays out 98.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AvalonBay Communities pays out 87.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Essex Property Trust has raised its dividend for 31 consecutive years and AvalonBay Communities has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Essex Property Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Do analysts prefer ESS or AVB?

Essex Property Trust currently has a consensus target price of $312.17, suggesting a potential upside of 10.19%. AvalonBay Communities has a consensus target price of $237.86, suggesting a potential upside of 14.99%. Given AvalonBay Communities' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe AvalonBay Communities is more favorable than Essex Property Trust.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Essex Property Trust	1 Sell rating(s)	11 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.32
AvalonBay Communities	0 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.47

Which has better valuation & earnings, ESS or AVB?

AvalonBay Communities has higher revenue and earnings than Essex Property Trust. AvalonBay Communities is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Essex Property Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Essex Property Trust	$1.81B	10.07	$741.52M	$10.45	27.11
AvalonBay Communities	$2.95B	9.99	$1.08B	$8.03	25.76

Does the media prefer ESS or AVB?

In the previous week, AvalonBay Communities had 2 more articles in the media than Essex Property Trust. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for AvalonBay Communities and 6 mentions for Essex Property Trust. Essex Property Trust's average media sentiment score of 1.60 beat AvalonBay Communities' score of 0.90 indicating that Essex Property Trust is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Essex Property Trust	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
AvalonBay Communities	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer ESS or AVB?

Essex Property Trust received 57 more outperform votes than AvalonBay Communities when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 59.91% of users gave AvalonBay Communities an outperform vote while only 56.29% of users gave Essex Property Trust an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Essex Property Trust	Outperform Votes 734 56.29%	Underperform Votes 570 43.71%
AvalonBay Communities	Outperform Votes 677 59.91%	Underperform Votes 453 40.09%

Which has more risk and volatility, ESS or AVB?

Essex Property Trust has a beta of 0.78, meaning that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AvalonBay Communities has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Essex Property Trust beats AvalonBay Communities on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.