Farringdon Capital Ltd. Invests $303,000 in Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS)

Farringdon Capital Ltd. bought a new position in Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 1,060 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $303,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new position in shares of Essex Property Trust in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,701,000. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board increased its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 41.8% during the 4th quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 4,684 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,337,000 after purchasing an additional 1,381 shares during the period. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan bought a new position in Essex Property Trust during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $248,000. XTX Topco Ltd lifted its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 220.1% in the 4th quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 7,945 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,268,000 after buying an additional 5,463 shares during the period. Finally, Sterling Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 12,383 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $3,535,000 after acquiring an additional 826 shares in the last quarter. 96.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Essex Property Trust news, Director Mary Kasaris sold 2,800 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.80, for a total transaction of $842,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,755 shares in the company, valued at $527,904. The trade was a 61.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 value of $2,298,870.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 16,118 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,077,170. The trade was a 31.17 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,345 shares of company stock valued at $6,682,539 in the last quarter. 3.46% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on ESS shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Essex Property Trust from $314.00 to $305.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $304.00 to $303.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $292.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Evercore ISI lifted 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 report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Essex Property Trust from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $323.00 to $310.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $307.11.

Essex Property Trust Stock Performance

Essex Property Trust stock traded up $2.41 during trading on Thursday, reaching $279.50. The company had a trading volume of 123,633 shares, compared to its average volume of 483,222. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a 52 week low of $240.57 and a 52 week high of $317.73. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $17.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.84 and a beta of 0.78. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $290.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $291.18.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The real estate investment trust reported $3.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $2.52. Essex Property Trust had a net margin of 41.79% and a return on equity of 13.05%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Essex Property Trust, Inc. 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 was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a dividend of $2.57 per share. This represents a $10.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This is a boost from Essex Property Trust's previous quarterly dividend of $2.45. Essex Property Trust's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 89.08%.

About Essex Property Trust

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.