Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) Given New $285.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) had its price target reduced by Morgan Stanley from $302.00 to $285.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Morgan Stanley‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 4.16% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on ESS. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Essex Property Trust from $292.75 to $285.50 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Essex Property Trust from $275.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Citizens Jmp raised shares of Essex Property Trust from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $330.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Essex Property Trust from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, September 10th. Finally, Evercore set a $299.00 price objective on shares of Essex Property Trust in a research report on Monday, September 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $297.52.

Essex Property Trust Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of ESS traded down $2.14 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $273.61. The stock had a trading volume of 96,465 shares, compared to its average volume of 514,885. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $272.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $270.25. Essex Property Trust has a twelve month low of $238.46 and a twelve month high of $303.35. The firm has a market cap of $17.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.74 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.54.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.01 by ($2.49). The firm had revenue of $492.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $491.01 million. Essex Property Trust had a net margin of 17.84% and a return on equity of 6.24%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.97 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Essex Property Trust will post 16.17 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Essex Property Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in shares of Essex Property Trust during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $80,281,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Essex Property Trust in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,889,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new stake in shares of Essex Property Trust in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $11,451,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in shares of Essex Property Trust in the second quarter valued at $31,204,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Essex Property Trust in the second quarter valued at $2,166,555,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.51% of the company’s stock.

Essex Property Trust Company Profile

Essex Property Trust, Inc. is a real estate investment trust focused on owning, operating, acquiring, developing and redeveloping apartment communities. Its portfolio serves renters in major coastal markets in Southern California, Northern California and the Seattle metropolitan area. Founded in 1971, the company became publicly traded in 1994. Essex’s primary business is providing rental housing, with property operations and development activities supporting its apartment portfolio.