Essex Property Trust (ESS) Competitors

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) and Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and media sentiment.

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

91.9% of American Homes 4 Rent shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 6.0% of American Homes 4 Rent shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts prefer AMH or ESS?

American Homes 4 Rent presently has a consensus target price of $40.42, suggesting a potential upside of 17.55%. Essex Property Trust has a consensus target price of $300.44, suggesting a potential upside of 15.28%. Given American Homes 4 Rent's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe American Homes 4 Rent is more favorable than Essex Property Trust.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Homes 4 Rent	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Essex Property Trust	1 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Is AMH or ESS a better dividend stock?

American Homes 4 Rent pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Essex Property Trust pays an annual dividend of $10.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. American Homes 4 Rent pays out 108.1% 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 pays out 82.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. American Homes 4 Rent has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years and Essex Property Trust has raised its dividend for 31 consecutive years. Essex Property Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, AMH or ESS?

Essex Property Trust has higher revenue and earnings than American Homes 4 Rent. Essex Property Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Homes 4 Rent, 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
American Homes 4 Rent	$1.73B	7.38	$412.43M	$1.11	30.98
Essex Property Trust	$1.84B	9.12	$741.52M	$12.44	20.95

Which has more volatility and risk, AMH or ESS?

American Homes 4 Rent has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Essex Property Trust has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor AMH or ESS?

In the previous week, Essex Property Trust had 15 more articles in the media than American Homes 4 Rent. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for Essex Property Trust and 7 mentions for American Homes 4 Rent. Essex Property Trust's average media sentiment score of 1.60 beat American Homes 4 Rent's score of 1.26 indicating that Essex Property Trust is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
American Homes 4 Rent	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Essex Property Trust	19 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Is AMH or ESS more profitable?

Essex Property Trust has a net margin of 43.51% compared to American Homes 4 Rent's net margin of 23.72%. Essex Property Trust's return on equity of 13.98% beat American Homes 4 Rent's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Homes 4 Rent	23.72%	5.60%	3.29%
Essex Property Trust	43.51%	13.98%	6.16%

Summary

Essex Property Trust beats American Homes 4 Rent on 15 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.