First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Trims Stock Holdings in Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. lowered its holdings in Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) by 46.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,586 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 10,776 shares during the period. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Essex Property Trust were worth $3,593,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ESS. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 4.5% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,492 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,223,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 17.9% during the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 8,991 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,447,000 after buying an additional 1,367 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 100.6% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 53,545 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $14,575,000 after buying an additional 26,849 shares during the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 60.5% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 12,296 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,347,000 after buying an additional 4,633 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AXA S.A. lifted its holdings in Essex Property Trust by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 6,294 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,713,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.51% of the company’s stock.

Essex Property Trust Stock Performance

NYSE:ESS opened at $277.43 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a twelve month low of $223.06 and a twelve month high of $317.73. The firm has a market cap of $17.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50-day moving average of $290.92 and a 200-day moving average of $291.99.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.84 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.88 by ($2.04). Essex Property Trust had a net margin of 31.55% and a return on equity of 9.72%. The firm had revenue of $450.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $445.88 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.78 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Essex Property Trust, Inc. will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essex Property Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a $2.45 dividend. This represents a $9.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. Essex Property Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 114.49%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on ESS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Essex Property Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $297.00 to $303.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Mizuho reduced their target price on Essex Property Trust from $325.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. BMO Capital Markets raised Essex Property Trust from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $323.00 to $310.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Raymond James lowered Essex Property Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on Essex Property Trust from $316.00 to $302.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $304.32.

Essex Property Trust Profile

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.