ABC Arbitrage SA Purchases New Holdings in Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS)

ABC Arbitrage SA purchased a new stake in shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 7,294 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $2,082,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in Essex Property Trust in the 2nd quarter worth about $384,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its stake in Essex Property Trust by 1,247.2% in the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 485 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $143,000 after acquiring an additional 449 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its stake in Essex Property Trust by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 6,166 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,822,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Essex Property Trust by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 936 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its stake in Essex Property Trust by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 18,670 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,515,000 after acquiring an additional 558 shares in the last quarter. 96.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ESS. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Essex Property Trust in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Essex Property Trust from $314.00 to $305.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Essex Property Trust from $316.00 to $302.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Essex Property Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Essex Property Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $297.00 to $303.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $306.53.

Essex Property Trust Stock Down 1.2 %

NYSE:ESS opened at $288.09 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.96, a PEG ratio of 6.93 and a beta of 0.92. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a 1-year low of $225.40 and a 1-year high of $317.73. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $285.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $292.53. 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 (NYSE:ESS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The real estate investment trust reported $3.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $2.52. Essex Property Trust had a net margin of 41.79% and a return on equity of 13.05%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Essex Property Trust, Inc. will post 15.96 EPS for the current year.

Essex Property Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were paid a $2.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $9.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.40%. Essex Property Trust’s payout ratio is currently 84.92%.

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.