Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) Price Target to $305.00

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) had its price objective dropped by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $314.00 to $305.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price points to a potential upside of 10.90% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on ESS. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Essex Property Trust in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Essex Property Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $297.00 to $303.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Mizuho cut their price target on Essex Property Trust from $325.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Essex Property Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Essex Property Trust from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $308.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $304.32.

Essex Property Trust Stock Down 0.9 %

NYSE:ESS traded down $2.61 on Friday, hitting $275.02. 42,515 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 466,435. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $291.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $292.06. Essex Property Trust has a 52 week low of $223.06 and a 52 week high of $317.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The company has a market cap of $17.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 0.92.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.88 by ($2.04). Essex Property Trust had a return on equity of 9.72% and a net margin of 31.55%. The company had revenue of $450.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $445.88 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.78 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Essex Property Trust will post 15.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Essex Property Trust

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ESS. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in Essex Property Trust by 2,400.0% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 100 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in shares of Essex Property Trust in the 3rd quarter valued at $39,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 37.5% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 154 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of Essex Property Trust by 104.5% during the 3rd quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 225 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $68,000 after buying an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sentry Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Essex Property Trust in the third quarter valued at about $89,000. Institutional investors own 96.51% of the company’s stock.

Essex Property Trust Company 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.