Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC Sells 198 Shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. $ESS

Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC lessened its stake in Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,938 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 198 shares during the quarter. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Essex Property Trust were worth $1,966,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Ethic Inc. increased its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 5,943 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,696,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its position in Essex Property Trust by 6.6% in the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 50,197 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $14,237,000 after buying an additional 3,129 shares during the last quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Essex Property Trust by 8,700.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 176 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Essex Property Trust during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC boosted its position in Essex Property Trust by 70.2% during the 2nd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 1,457 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $426,000 after acquiring an additional 601 shares during the last quarter. 96.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ESS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Essex Property Trust from $298.00 to $297.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered shares of Essex Property Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $283.00 to $279.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Piper Sandler cut Essex Property Trust from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $355.00 to $275.00 in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Essex Property Trust from $304.00 to $285.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Essex Property Trust has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $297.09.

Essex Property Trust Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ESS opened at $264.19 on Thursday. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a 12 month low of $243.85 and a 12 month high of $316.29. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $263.91 and a 200-day moving average of $273.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16. The company has a market capitalization of $17.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.24, a P/E/G ratio of 6.36 and a beta of 0.81.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $4.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.99 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $465.84 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $466.47 million. Essex Property Trust had a net margin of 43.51% and a return on equity of 13.98%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.94 earnings per share. Essex Property Trust has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 3.890-3.990 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 15.800-16.020 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Essex Property Trust, Inc. will post 15.96 EPS for the current year.

Essex Property Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $2.57 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $10.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Essex Property Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 82.64%.

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.