Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $2.45

Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, September 5th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of 2.45 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, October 11th. This represents a $9.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.25%.

Essex Property Trust has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.6% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 30 consecutive years. Essex Property Trust has a payout ratio of 165.0% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Essex Property Trust to earn $16.01 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $9.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 61.2%.

Essex Property Trust Stock Performance

Shares of ESS opened at $301.96 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $19.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.91, a PEG ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.88. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $284.43 and a 200 day moving average of $262.51. Essex Property Trust has a 12 month low of $203.85 and a 12 month high of $307.75.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on ESS shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Essex Property Trust from $269.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group raised their target price on Essex Property Trust from $261.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Mizuho raised their target price on Essex Property Trust from $250.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Raymond James lifted their price target on Essex Property Trust from $295.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $281.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Essex Property Trust news, Director Amal M. Johnson sold 2,453 shares of Essex Property Trust stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $735,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 2,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $775,500. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Essex Property Trust news, Director Keith R. Guericke sold 10,000 shares of Essex Property Trust stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.57, for a total transaction of $2,745,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,425,519.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Amal M. Johnson sold 2,453 shares of Essex Property Trust stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $735,900.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $775,500. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,233 shares of company stock valued at $4,533,461 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 3.80% 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.