Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.04 (NYSE:ESRT)

Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESRT – Get Rating) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, May 16th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 15th will be given a dividend of 0.035 per share by the real estate investment trust on Thursday, June 30th. This represents a $0.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 14th.

Empire State Realty Trust has decreased its dividend by an average of 37.0% per year over the last three years.

Shares of ESRT traded up $0.07 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $8.09. The stock had a trading volume of 122,503 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,781,322. Empire State Realty Trust has a 52 week low of $7.66 and a 52 week high of $13.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 6.73 and a quick ratio of 5.94. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $9.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.32. The company has a market capitalization of $1.38 billion, a P/E ratio of -66.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.99.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Empire State Realty Trust by 0.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,240,809 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $228,226,000 after buying an additional 154,374 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in Empire State Realty Trust by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 14,614,125 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $130,066,000 after purchasing an additional 717,200 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Empire State Realty Trust by 15.5% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,256,222 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $71,256,000 after buying an additional 974,740 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Empire State Realty Trust by 21.1% in the 2nd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,468,128 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $53,618,000 after buying an additional 779,024 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Empire State Realty Trust by 36.6% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,794,641 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $33,772,000 after buying an additional 1,017,288 shares during the period. 77.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ESRT shares. Zacks Investment Research raised Empire State Realty Trust from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $9.50 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 9th. Evercore ISI raised Empire State Realty Trust from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $11.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 2nd. StockNews.com lowered Empire State Realty Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered Empire State Realty Trust from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $8.00 in a research report on Monday, March 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.50.

About Empire State Realty Trust (Get Rating)

Empire State Realty Trust, Inc (NYSE: ESRT), a leading real estate investment trust (REIT), owns, manages, operates, acquires and repositions office and retail properties in Manhattan and the greater New York metropolitan area, including the Empire State Building, the World's Most Famous Building.

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