Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) Receives $307.16 Consensus PT from Brokerages

Shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of "Hold" from the twenty ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twelve have issued a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $307.16.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on ESS shares. JMP Securities reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Essex Property Trust in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $297.00 to $302.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $314.00 to $305.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Essex Property Trust from a "neutral" rating to an "underweight" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $297.00 to $303.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their target price on Essex Property Trust from $325.00 to $300.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th.

Essex Property Trust Stock Performance

NYSE:ESS traded down $7.88 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $254.52. The stock had a trading volume of 562,306 shares, compared to its average volume of 393,737. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $294.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $293.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.06, a P/E/G ratio of 6.84 and a beta of 0.78. Essex Property Trust has a 52 week low of $230.90 and a 52 week high of $317.73.

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Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The real estate investment trust reported $3.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $2.52. Essex Property Trust had a return on equity of 13.05% and a net margin of 41.79%. On average, research analysts expect that Essex Property Trust will post 15.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essex Property Trust Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $2.57 dividend. This represents a $10.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This is an increase from Essex Property Trust's previous quarterly dividend of $2.45. Essex Property Trust's dividend payout ratio is 89.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Keith R. Guericke sold 7,298 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $2,298,870.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,118 shares in the company, valued at $5,077,170. The trade was a 31.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Angela L. Kleiman sold 4,929 shares of Essex Property Trust stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.99, for a total value of $1,552,585.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,662 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,303,393.38. The trade was a 26.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,345 shares of company stock valued at $6,682,539. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Essex Property Trust

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ESS. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Essex Property Trust in the 4th quarter worth approximately $471,258,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Essex Property Trust by 35,500.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 448,205 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $137,406,000 after purchasing an additional 446,946 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 56.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,127,830 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $321,928,000 after buying an additional 404,892 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in Essex Property Trust by 64.0% in the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 570,786 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $162,925,000 after buying an additional 222,713 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group grew its stake in Essex Property Trust by 1,620.1% in the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 197,436 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $55,835,000 after buying an additional 185,958 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.51% of the company's stock.

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.