FIL Ltd Purchases 671,448 Shares of Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EPRT)

FIL Ltd increased its stake in shares of Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EPRT - Free Report) by 32,343.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 673,524 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 671,448 shares during the quarter. FIL Ltd owned approximately 0.38% of Essential Properties Realty Trust worth $21,068,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in Essential Properties Realty Trust by 118.6% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 297,989 shares of the company's stock valued at $10,176,000 after purchasing an additional 161,697 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp bought a new position in shares of Essential Properties Realty Trust in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $287,000. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its stake in Essential Properties Realty Trust by 38.6% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 94,169 shares of the company's stock worth $2,946,000 after purchasing an additional 26,234 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Essential Properties Realty Trust by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,594,775 shares of the company's stock worth $54,462,000 after acquiring an additional 98,467 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Essential Properties Realty Trust by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,872,955 shares of the company's stock valued at $89,866,000 after purchasing an additional 43,179 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.98% of the company's stock.

Remove Ads

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on EPRT. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Essential Properties Realty Trust from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. B. Riley downgraded shares of Essential Properties Realty Trust from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $29.50 to $33.50 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Capital One Financial initiated coverage on Essential Properties Realty Trust in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $35.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Essential Properties Realty Trust from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Essential Properties Realty Trust has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $34.91.

Insider Activity at Essential Properties Realty Trust

In related news, Director Stephen D. Sautel sold 12,500 shares of Essential Properties Realty Trust stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.54, for a total value of $406,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 178,785 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,817,663.90. The trade was a 6.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Essential Properties Realty Trust Price Performance

NYSE EPRT traded up $0.44 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $31.92. 1,190,760 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,404,510. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.14. The company has a market cap of $5.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.08. Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. has a 1 year low of $24.72 and a 1 year high of $34.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 5.36 and a quick ratio of 5.36.

Essential Properties Realty Trust (NYSE:EPRT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.14. Essential Properties Realty Trust had a net margin of 45.15% and a return on equity of 6.12%. On average, analysts predict that Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. will post 1.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essential Properties Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.295 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.70%. Essential Properties Realty Trust's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 103.51%.

Essential Properties Realty Trust Profile

Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc, a real estate company, acquires, owns, and manages single-tenant properties in the United States. The company leases its properties to middle-market companies, such as restaurants, car washes, automotive services, medical and dental services, convenience stores, equipment rental, entertainment, early childhood education, grocery, and health and fitness on a long-term basis.