Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Purchases 8,088 Shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS) by 76.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,610 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 8,088 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Equity LifeStyle Properties were worth $1,239,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 172.0% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,070,817 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $404,319,000 after buying an additional 3,838,809 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 3.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,761,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $339,713,000 after purchasing an additional 147,332 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 0.9% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,649,670 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $331,707,000 after purchasing an additional 39,864 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,833,596 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $273,014,000 after purchasing an additional 65,191 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 3.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,441,191 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $174,155,000 after purchasing an additional 87,609 shares during the period. 97.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on ELS. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties from $69.00 to $68.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Truist Financial raised shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $72.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties from $72.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $73.78.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Stock Up 0.4 %

ELS stock opened at $68.59 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $13.10 billion, a PE ratio of 35.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 0.79. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $66.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $69.15. Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. has a 52 week low of $59.82 and a 52 week high of $76.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 0.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76. Equity LifeStyle Properties had a return on equity of 23.12% and a net margin of 24.05%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. will post 3.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a $0.515 dividend. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.00%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This is an increase from Equity LifeStyle Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Equity LifeStyle Properties’s payout ratio is 105.64%.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Profile

Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the ownership and operation of lifestyle-oriented properties consisting primarily of manufactured home, and recreational vehicle communities. It operates through the following segments: Property Operations and Home Sales and Rentals Operations.