Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS) Increases Dividend to $0.48 Per Share

Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 30th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.4775 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, October 11th. This represents a $1.91 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. This is an increase from Equity LifeStyle Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48.

Equity LifeStyle Properties has increased its dividend by an average of 18.9% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 20 years. Equity LifeStyle Properties has a payout ratio of 101.6% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Equity LifeStyle Properties to earn $3.08 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.91 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 62.0%.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Stock Down 1.3 %

ELS opened at $71.97 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.03 and a current ratio of 0.03. Equity LifeStyle Properties has a one year low of $59.82 and a one year high of $76.60. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $71.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $66.18.

Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.65 by ($0.23). The firm had revenue of $380.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $334.53 million. Equity LifeStyle Properties had a net margin of 23.56% and a return on equity of 23.71%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. Equity LifeStyle Properties’s revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Equity LifeStyle Properties will post 2.91 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Patrick Waite sold 20,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.23, for a total transaction of $1,462,188.60. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 221,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,575,398.71. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Equity LifeStyle Properties news, COO Patrick Waite sold 20,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.23, for a total transaction of $1,462,188.60. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 221,777 shares in the company, valued at $15,575,398.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Paul Seavey sold 31,988 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.83, for a total value of $2,393,662.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 148,463 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,109,486.29. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 85,808 shares of company stock worth $6,348,011 in the last 90 days. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ELS. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $68.00 price target on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Truist Financial upped their price target on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised Equity LifeStyle Properties from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $70.50 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Equity LifeStyle Properties currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.67.

About Equity LifeStyle Properties

We are a self-administered, self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) with headquarters in Chicago. As of January 29, 2024, we own or have an interest in 451 properties in 35 states and British Columbia consisting of 172,465 sites.