Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) Given New $297.00 Price Target at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) had its price target boosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $265.00 to $297.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Essex Property Trust from $240.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Truist Financial upped their target price on Essex Property Trust from $282.00 to $294.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $264.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Essex Property Trust from $267.00 to $268.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $315.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Monday, August 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $291.10.

Essex Property Trust Stock Performance

Shares of ESS stock opened at $312.42 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The company has a market cap of $20.06 billion, a PE ratio of 38.19, a PEG ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 0.88. Essex Property Trust has a 12-month low of $203.85 and a 12-month high of $317.73. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $291.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $267.92.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.85 by ($2.40). The business had revenue of $442.36 million during 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 last year, the business posted $3.77 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Essex Property Trust will post 15.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essex Property Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a $2.45 dividend. This represents a $9.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. Essex Property Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 119.80%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Amal M. Johnson sold 2,453 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now directly owns 2,585 shares in the company, valued at $775,500. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Amal M. Johnson sold 2,453 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The shares were 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 owns 2,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $775,500. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Anne Morrison sold 2,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,321 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $730,627.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 20,402 shares of company stock valued at $6,399,663. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Essex Property Trust

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of ESS. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Essex Property Trust in the 4th quarter valued at about $675,183,000. Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Essex Property Trust by 31.2% in the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 3,072,004 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $761,760,000 after acquiring an additional 730,141 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Essex Property Trust by 86.5% in the 1st quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 997,792 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $244,269,000 after acquiring an additional 462,828 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 27,120.0% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 425,721 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $115,881,000 after acquiring an additional 424,157 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. acquired a new stake in Essex Property Trust in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $98,594,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.51% of the company’s stock.

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.