Essential Properties Realty Trust (NYSE:EPRT) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.06 EPS

Essential Properties Realty Trust (NYSE:EPRT) released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.06), Zacks reports. The firm had revenue of $168.67 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $158.17 million. Essential Properties Realty Trust had a return on equity of 6.03% and a net margin of 41.03%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.48 EPS.

Essential Properties Realty Trust Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NYSE EPRT traded up $0.28 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $26.54. The stock had a trading volume of 77,718 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,061,615. The company has a market capitalization of $5.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.82. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $27.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $30.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 8.17 and a current ratio of 8.17. Essential Properties Realty Trust has a 52 week low of $24.62 and a 52 week high of $34.73.

Essential Properties Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 30th. Essential Properties Realty Trust’s payout ratio is currently 99.22%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EPRT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on Essential Properties Realty Trust from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Essential Properties Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $38.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays reduced their price target on Essential Properties Realty Trust from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings cut Essential Properties Realty Trust from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Finally, Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $37.00 target price on shares of Essential Properties Realty Trust in a research note on Monday, September 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $33.23.

About Essential Properties Realty Trust

Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc (NYSE:EPRT) is an internally managed real estate investment trust that acquires, owns and manages single-tenant commercial properties. The company primarily leases these properties to middle-market businesses under long-term, net lease agreements, which generally require tenants to pay a substantial portion of the property’s operating expenses, including taxes, insurance and maintenance.

EPRT’s portfolio is diversified across businesses such as automotive services, medical services, restaurants, retail, early childhood education and other service-oriented industries.