CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co Raises Stock Position in Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS)

CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co lifted its stake in Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) by 7.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 137,098 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 9,116 shares during the quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co’s holdings in Essex Property Trust were worth $39,139,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of ESS. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,353,157 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,955,205,000 after acquiring an additional 61,645 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Essex Property Trust by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,758,174 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $500,688,000 after purchasing an additional 32,102 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Essex Property Trust in the fourth quarter worth $471,258,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Essex Property Trust by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,494,298 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $426,532,000 after buying an additional 70,785 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 772,883 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $220,612,000 after buying an additional 18,704 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ESS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $302.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Essex Property Trust from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $308.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays lowered their price objective on Essex Property Trust from $304.00 to $303.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Mizuho cut their target price on Essex Property Trust from $325.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised Essex Property Trust from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $323.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $307.11.

Essex Property Trust Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of ESS stock opened at $275.37 on Friday. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a 1 year low of $234.77 and a 1 year high of $317.73. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $291.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $291.51. The company has a market cap of $17.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.86, a PEG ratio of 6.84 and a beta of 0.78. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The real estate investment trust reported $3.92 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $2.52. Essex Property Trust had a return on equity of 13.05% and a net margin of 41.79%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Essex Property Trust, Inc. will post 15.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Essex Property Trust Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $2.57 per share. This is a boost from Essex Property Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.45. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $10.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.73%. Essex Property Trust’s payout ratio is 89.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Mary Kasaris sold 2,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.80, for a total value of $842,240.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $527,904. The trade was a 61.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Angela L. Kleiman sold 4,929 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.99, for a total transaction of $1,552,585.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,303,393.38. The trade was a 26.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 21,345 shares of company stock valued at $6,682,539. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Essex Property Trust 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.