Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) Upgraded to “Overweight” by Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $82.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their prior target price of $70.50.

ELS has been the subject of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated a sector perform rating and issued a $68.00 price objective on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an in-line rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Equity LifeStyle Properties presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $70.67.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE:ELS opened at $71.81 on Thursday. Equity LifeStyle Properties has a 12-month low of $59.82 and a 12-month high of $76.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.24, a PEG ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.79. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $70.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 0.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by ($0.23). The firm had revenue of $380.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $334.53 million. Equity LifeStyle Properties had a return on equity of 23.71% and a net margin of 23.56%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Equity LifeStyle Properties will post 2.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.4775 per share. This represents a $1.91 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 27th. This is a positive change from Equity LifeStyle Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Equity LifeStyle Properties’s payout ratio is currently 104.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Equity LifeStyle Properties news, CFO Paul Seavey sold 31,988 shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.83, for a total transaction of $2,393,662.04. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 148,463 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,109,486.29. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Paul Seavey sold 31,988 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.83, for a total value of $2,393,662.04. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 148,463 shares in the company, valued at $11,109,486.29. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Patrick Waite sold 20,820 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.23, for a total value of $1,462,188.60. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 221,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,575,398.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 85,808 shares of company stock valued at $6,348,011. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equity LifeStyle Properties

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mather Group LLC. bought a new stake in Equity LifeStyle Properties in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties in the first quarter worth about $27,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties in the second quarter worth about $30,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 167.1% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 625 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 391 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 36.0% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 819 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.21% of the company’s stock.

About Equity LifeStyle Properties

We are a self-administered, self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) with headquarters in Chicago. As of January 29, 2024, we own or have an interest in 451 properties in 35 states and British Columbia consisting of 172,465 sites.