Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA Acquires New Stake in Essex Property Trust, Inc. $ESS

Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA acquired a new stake in Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 3,733 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $999,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ESS. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Essex Property Trust by 57.5% during the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 115 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Tobam boosted its position in Essex Property Trust by 167.3% during the second quarter. Tobam now owns 131 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC purchased a new position in Essex Property Trust in the second quarter valued at about $48,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. purchased a new position in Essex Property Trust in the third quarter valued at about $48,000. Finally, MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new position in Essex Property Trust in the second quarter worth about $54,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ESS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Essex Property Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $305.00 to $280.00 in a report on Friday, January 9th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Essex Property Trust from $267.00 to $274.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Essex Property Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $279.00 to $281.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essex Property Trust in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $282.00.

Essex Property Trust Price Performance

Shares of ESS stock opened at $250.11 on Thursday. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $243.25 and a fifty-two week high of $310.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.03, a PEG ratio of 7.98 and a beta of 0.73. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $254.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $258.82.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The real estate investment trust reported $3.98 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.00 by ($0.02). Essex Property Trust had a net margin of 35.48% and a return on equity of 11.61%. The company had revenue of $479.63 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $474.66 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.92 earnings per share. Essex Property Trust has set its FY 2026 guidance at 15.690-16.190 EPS and its Q1 2026 guidance at 3.890-4.010 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Essex Property Trust, Inc. will post 15.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essex Property Trust Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be issued a $2.59 dividend. This is a boost from Essex Property Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.57. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 31st. This represents a $10.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.1%. Essex Property Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 99.52%.

Essex Property Trust Profile

Essex Property Trust, Inc (NYSE: ESS) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires, develops, owns and operates multifamily residential properties. The company focuses on market-rate apartment communities and delivers a full suite of property services including leasing, resident services, asset management, and capital improvement programs designed to preserve and enhance long?term property values.

Essex concentrates its portfolio in West Coast markets, with a significant presence in California and the Pacific Northwest.