Insider Selling: Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) CEO Sells 8,080 Shares of Stock

Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) CEO Angela L. Kleiman sold 8,080 shares of Essex Property Trust stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.10, for a total value of $2,546,008.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,991,559.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Essex Property Trust Stock Performance

Shares of Essex Property Trust stock traded down $0.14 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $312.00. 237,404 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 373,585. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.14, a P/E/G ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a 50-day moving average of $290.16 and a 200-day moving average of $267.29. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a 1 year low of $203.85 and a 1 year high of $317.73.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.85 by ($2.40). Essex Property Trust had a net margin of 30.31% and a return on equity of 9.14%. The firm had revenue of $442.36 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $433.26 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.77 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Essex Property Trust, Inc. will post 15.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essex Property Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a $2.45 dividend. This represents a $9.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. Essex Property Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 119.80%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on ESS. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Essex Property Trust from $267.00 to $268.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Essex Property Trust from $283.00 to $287.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $309.00 to $329.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Essex Property Trust from $282.00 to $294.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $295.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $291.10.

Institutional Trading of Essex Property Trust

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Continuum Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 214.3% during the 2nd quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 110 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 600.0% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 112 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Family Firm Inc. bought a new stake in Essex Property Trust in the second quarter valued at $31,000. Vima LLC acquired a new position in shares of Essex Property Trust during the fourth quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 121.8% during the second quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 193 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the period. 96.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Essex Property Trust

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.