Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Purchases 1,195 Shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS)

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS - Free Report) by 26.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,749 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 1,195 shares during the quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Essex Property Trust were worth $1,641,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in Essex Property Trust by 237.7% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,502 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $681,000 after purchasing an additional 1,761 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Essex Property Trust during the 2nd quarter worth $443,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its position in Essex Property Trust by 10.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 4,594 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,235,000 after acquiring an additional 451 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Essex Property Trust by 4.5% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,492 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,223,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in Essex Property Trust by 1.2% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 315,454 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $85,867,000 after acquiring an additional 3,750 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.51% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ESS. Mizuho cut their price objective on Essex Property Trust from $325.00 to $300.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Essex Property Trust from a "neutral" rating to an "underweight" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $297.00 to $303.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. JMP Securities reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Essex Property Trust in a research note on Thursday. Raymond James cut shares of Essex Property Trust from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Essex Property Trust in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $316.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Essex Property Trust presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $305.42.

Essex Property Trust Trading Down 0.2 %

ESS stock traded down $0.55 during trading on Friday, reaching $283.20. The company had a trading volume of 364,613 shares, compared to its average volume of 355,089. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.14. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a 52 week low of $223.06 and a 52 week high of $317.73. The business has a 50 day moving average of $293.18 and a 200 day moving average of $291.80. The company has a market cap of $18.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.08, a PEG ratio of 5.21 and a beta of 0.92.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.88 by ($2.04). The firm had revenue of $450.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $445.88 million. Essex Property Trust had a return on equity of 9.72% and a net margin of 31.55%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.78 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Essex Property Trust, Inc. will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essex Property Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were paid a dividend of $2.45 per share. This represents a $9.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. Essex Property Trust's dividend payout ratio is 114.49%.

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.