Captrust Financial Advisors Raises Stock Holdings in Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS)

Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) by 11.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,629 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors’ holdings in Essex Property Trust were worth $465,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 124.0% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 224 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its position in Essex Property Trust by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 19,656 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,611,000 after buying an additional 986 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Essex Property Trust in the 4th quarter worth approximately $7,027,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Essex Property Trust by 10.8% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 15,527 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,408,000 after buying an additional 1,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vert Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Essex Property Trust by 9.1% in the 4th quarter. Vert Asset Management LLC now owns 28,367 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,097,000 after buying an additional 2,366 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on ESS shares. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Essex Property Trust from $292.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Essex Property Trust in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Essex Property Trust from $311.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays boosted their price objective on Essex Property Trust from $303.00 to $328.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Essex Property Trust from $329.00 to $344.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $312.17.

Essex Property Trust Price Performance

Shares of ESS stock opened at $288.59 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $18.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.01, a PEG ratio of 6.84 and a beta of 0.78. The business’s fifty day moving average is $284.62 and its 200 day moving average is $289.91. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a twelve month low of $243.85 and a twelve month high of $317.73. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $464.58 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $458.03 million. Essex Property Trust had a return on equity of 13.05% and a net margin of 41.79%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.83 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Essex Property Trust, Inc. will post 15.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essex Property Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a $2.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $10.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.56%. Essex Property Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.37%.

Insider Transactions at Essex Property Trust

In other news, CFO Barbara Pak sold 6,318 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.79, for a total value of $1,988,843.22. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,724,192.66. This represents a 42.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Mary Kasaris sold 2,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.80, for a total value of $842,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,755 shares in the company, valued at approximately $527,904. This represents a 61.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,345 shares of company stock valued at $6,682,539. Insiders own 3.46% 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.