Bank of America Lowers Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) to Neutral

Bank of America cut shares of Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. Bank of America currently has $321.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $307.00.

ESS has been the subject of a number of other reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $240.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Essex Property Trust in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a neutral rating and a $318.00 price target on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Essex Property Trust from $267.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Essex Property Trust in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an outperform rating and a $333.00 price objective for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Essex Property Trust from $265.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $293.40.

Essex Property Trust Trading Down 1.1 %

Essex Property Trust stock opened at $294.17 on Tuesday. Essex Property Trust has a 52 week low of $203.85 and a 52 week high of $317.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 1.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.96, a P/E/G ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $293.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $269.77.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.85 by ($2.40). The business had revenue of $442.36 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $433.26 million. Essex Property Trust had a net margin of 30.31% and a return on equity of 9.14%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.77 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Essex Property Trust will post 15.55 EPS for the current year.

Essex Property Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of $2.45 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $9.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.33%. Essex Property Trust’s payout ratio is 119.80%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Amal M. Johnson sold 2,453 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $735,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $775,500. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Amal M. Johnson sold 2,453 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $735,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,585 shares in the company, valued at approximately $775,500. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Anne Morrison sold 2,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.79, for a total transaction of $809,325.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,321 shares in the company, valued at $730,627.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 20,402 shares of company stock valued at $6,399,663 in the last three months. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Essex Property Trust

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Essex Property Trust during the second quarter valued at approximately $384,000. Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 20,707 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,636,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Essex Property Trust by 1,319.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 880 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $240,000 after buying an additional 818 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. bought a new position in shares of Essex Property Trust during the 2nd quarter worth about $98,594,000. Finally, Scientech Research LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Essex Property Trust during the 2nd quarter valued at about $616,000. 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.