The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Purchases 19,282 Shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS) by 13.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 165,021 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 19,282 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned about 0.09% of Equity LifeStyle Properties worth $11,773,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 370.6% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 2,329,431 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $166,182,000 after purchasing an additional 1,834,491 shares in the last quarter. PGGM Investments lifted its position in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 4,586.1% in the 2nd quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 1,843,496 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $120,067,000 after acquiring an additional 1,804,156 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 56.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,232,008 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $159,232,000 after buying an additional 805,681 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $54,866,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,609,806 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $300,237,000 after buying an additional 331,945 shares during the last quarter. 97.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on ELS. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group raised shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Equity LifeStyle Properties from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $70.50 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “hold” rating and a $72.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $76.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equity LifeStyle Properties has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Paul Seavey sold 31,988 shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.83, for a total transaction of $2,393,662.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 148,463 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,109,486.29. The trade was a 17.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Marguerite M. Nader sold 33,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.52, for a total value of $2,492,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 260,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,705,886.72. This trade represents a 11.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of ELS stock opened at $70.35 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $70.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $68.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.03 and a quick ratio of 0.03. Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. has a 1 year low of $59.82 and a 1 year high of $76.60. The company has a market cap of $13.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.26, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.79.

Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.72 by ($0.28). The business had revenue of $387.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $315.78 million. Equity LifeStyle Properties had a return on equity of 24.10% and a net margin of 23.97%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. will post 2.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a dividend of $0.477 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.91 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.71%. Equity LifeStyle Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 98.45%.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Profile

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.