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Essex Property Trust (ESS) Competitors

Essex Property Trust logo
$273.68 -4.15 (-1.49%)
Closing price 05/22/2025 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$273.66 -0.02 (-0.01%)
As of 05/22/2025 05:19 PM Eastern
Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more.

ESS vs. AVB, EQR, MAA, SUI, UDR, CPT, ELS, UMH, AIV, and SPG

Should you be buying Essex Property Trust stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Essex Property Trust include AvalonBay Communities (AVB), Equity Residential (EQR), Mid-America Apartment Communities (MAA), Sun Communities (SUI), UDR (UDR), Camden Property Trust (CPT), Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS), UMH Properties (UMH), Apartment Investment and Management (AIV), and Simon Property Group (SPG). These companies are all part of the "real estate investment trusts" industry.

Essex Property Trust vs.

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

Essex Property Trust received 55 more outperform votes than AvalonBay Communities when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 59.93% of users gave AvalonBay Communities an outperform vote while only 56.19% of users gave Essex Property Trust an outperform vote.

CompanyUnderperformOutperform
Essex Property TrustOutperform Votes
731
56.19%
Underperform Votes
570
43.81%
AvalonBay CommunitiesOutperform Votes
676
59.93%
Underperform Votes
452
40.07%

96.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.6% of AvalonBay Communities shares are held by institutional investors. 3.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of AvalonBay Communities shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Essex Property Trust currently has a consensus target price of $312.17, indicating a potential upside of 14.06%. AvalonBay Communities has a consensus target price of $239.93, indicating a potential upside of 20.12%. Given AvalonBay Communities' stronger consensus rating and higher possible 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

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 Trust41.79% 13.05% 5.82%
AvalonBay Communities 37.13%9.15%5.15%

In the previous week, AvalonBay Communities had 1 more articles in the media than Essex Property Trust. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for AvalonBay Communities and 19 mentions for Essex Property Trust. Essex Property Trust's average media sentiment score of 1.50 beat AvalonBay Communities' score of 1.35 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
18 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
0 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
AvalonBay Communities
15 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
2 Neutral mention(s)
1 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

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

Essex Property Trust pays an annual dividend of $10.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. AvalonBay Communities pays an annual dividend of $7.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. 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 increased its dividend for 31 consecutive years and AvalonBay Communities has increased 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.

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.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Essex Property Trust$1.81B9.72$741.52M$10.4526.19
AvalonBay Communities$2.95B9.65$1.08B$8.0324.88

Summary

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

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding {thisCompany.Symbol} and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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ESS vs. The Competition

MetricEssex Property TrustReal estate investment trusts IndustryFinance SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$17.62B$6.84B$11.47B$19.30B
Dividend Yield3.60%6.71%5.45%3.83%
P/E Ratio23.7260.0922.4234.53
Price / Sales9.728.3127.6234.83
Price / Cash14.3117.3217.6217.51
Price / Book3.071.642.774.69
Net Income$741.52M$177.71M$1.03B$1.02B
7 Day Performance-5.17%-3.35%-1.34%-2.43%
1 Month Performance-1.45%1.08%5.24%6.27%
1 Year Performance6.09%2.86%538.04%5.78%

Essex Property Trust Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
ESS
Essex Property Trust
4.2246 of 5 stars
$273.68
-1.5%
$312.17
+14.1%
+4.1%$17.62B$1.81B23.721,770Positive News
Analyst Revision
AVB
AvalonBay Communities
4.1646 of 5 stars
$208.58
+1.5%
$239.57
+14.9%
+1.1%$29.70B$2.95B27.482,950Positive News
Dividend Announcement
Analyst Revision
EQR
Equity Residential
4.4259 of 5 stars
$70.82
+1.3%
$79.12
+11.7%
+3.0%$26.91B$3.01B26.042,400Positive News
Analyst Revision
MAA
Mid-America Apartment Communities
4.0748 of 5 stars
$163.61
+0.4%
$169.55
+3.6%
+13.5%$19.15B$2.20B36.522,390Dividend Announcement
Analyst Forecast
SUI
Sun Communities
4.3448 of 5 stars
$125.12
-0.3%
$138.70
+10.9%
-2.8%$15.96B$3.20B67.277,590Positive News
Analyst Forecast
UDR
UDR
4.1605 of 5 stars
$42.58
+0.7%
$46.29
+8.7%
+1.1%$14.10B$1.68B170.301,330Positive News
Analyst Revision
CPT
Camden Property Trust
4.1912 of 5 stars
$118.88
+0.8%
$128.55
+8.1%
+8.5%$12.70B$1.55B79.251,650Positive News
ELS
Equity LifeStyle Properties
4.0937 of 5 stars
$63.64
-1.1%
$74.33
+16.8%
-1.1%$12.17B$1.43B32.644,100Positive News
UMH
UMH Properties
4.4998 of 5 stars
$17.17
-0.6%
$21.00
+22.3%
+5.6%$1.44B$244.10M132.12460Analyst Downgrade
AIV
Apartment Investment and Management
0.6264 of 5 stars
$8.06
+2.4%
N/A-4.9%$1.14B$210.83M-4.6660Positive News
Analyst Upgrade
SPG
Simon Property Group
4.3044 of 5 stars
$171.81
+5.3%
$178.39
+3.8%
+8.0%$56.06B$5.96B23.673,300Positive News
Analyst Forecast
Gap Up

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This page (NYSE:ESS) was last updated on 5/23/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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