3,300 Essex Property Trust, Inc. $ESS Shares Acquired by VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al lifted its position in shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) by 3.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 110,312 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 3,300 shares during the quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al’s holdings in Essex Property Trust were worth $29,717,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ESS. Choreo LLC lifted its stake in Essex Property Trust by 8.4% in the third quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 2,476 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $667,000 after acquiring an additional 192 shares during the period. Interchange Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 13.1% during the 3rd quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,394 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $376,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. North Dakota State Investment Board grew its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. North Dakota State Investment Board now owns 1,959 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $528,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in Essex Property Trust by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 132,512 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $35,697,000 after purchasing an additional 10,769 shares during the period. Finally, Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Essex Property Trust by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 812 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $219,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ESS has been the subject of several recent research reports. Mizuho lowered shares of Essex Property Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $308.00 to $295.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 8th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Essex Property Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Essex Property Trust from $297.00 to $279.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 19th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Essex Property Trust from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, September 10th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Essex Property Trust from $286.00 to $275.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $298.27.

Essex Property Trust Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of NYSE ESS opened at $264.04 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.82 and a beta of 0.70. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a 1-year low of $238.46 and a 1-year high of $303.35. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $274.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $269.67.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.01 by ($2.49). Essex Property Trust had a net margin of 17.84% and a return on equity of 6.24%. The company had revenue of $492.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $491.01 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.97 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Essex Property Trust, Inc. will post 16.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essex Property Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 30th were given a dividend of $2.59 per share. This represents a $10.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 30th. Essex Property Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 192.21%.

Essex Property Trust Profile

Essex Property Trust, Inc is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust that owns, develops, redevelops, and manages multifamily apartment communities. The company focuses on providing rental housing in high-demand markets and generates revenue primarily from apartment rents and related resident services.

Founded in 1971 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, Essex operates primarily in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Seattle metropolitan area.