Mizuho Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) Stock Price

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) had its target price cut by Mizuho from $314.00 to $293.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

ESS has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Essex Property Trust from $314.00 to $305.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Essex Property Trust from $297.00 to $302.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Essex Property Trust from $311.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Essex Property Trust from $370.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price target on Essex Property Trust from $292.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Essex Property Trust presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $311.78.

Essex Property Trust Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ESS opened at $269.80 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $283.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $289.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.14. Essex Property Trust has a one year low of $243.85 and a one year high of $317.73. The company has a market capitalization of $17.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.84 and a beta of 0.78.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.05. Essex Property Trust had a return on equity of 13.05% and a net margin of 41.79%. The company had revenue of $464.58 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $458.03 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.83 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Essex Property Trust will post 15.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essex Property Trust Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a $2.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $10.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.81%. Essex Property Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Mary Kasaris sold 2,800 shares of the 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 sale, the director now directly owns 1,755 shares in the company, valued at $527,904. This represents a 61.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Keith R. Guericke sold 7,298 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $2,298,870.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,077,170. This represents 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 worth $6,682,539 in the last three months. Insiders own 3.46% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ESS. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Essex Property Trust in the 4th quarter valued at $471,258,000. Wealthquest Corp acquired a new stake in Essex Property Trust during the 1st quarter worth $384,606,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Essex Property Trust by 66.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,746,242 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $841,916,000 after buying an additional 1,096,619 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Essex Property Trust by 35,500.1% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 448,205 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $137,406,000 after buying an additional 446,946 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in 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. 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.