BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Sells 1,583 Shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp trimmed its stake in shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) by 12.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 10,713 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,583 shares during the quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Essex Property Trust were worth $3,165,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ESS. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Essex Property Trust by 16.1% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,329,516 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $392,766,000 after purchasing an additional 183,947 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Essex Property Trust by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 1,001,769 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $272,682,000 after acquiring an additional 3,977 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Essex Property Trust by 1.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 941,501 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $256,280,000 after acquiring an additional 12,822 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Essex Property Trust by 6.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 754,179 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $222,800,000 after purchasing an additional 47,114 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 741,053 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $201,715,000 after purchasing an additional 6,216 shares in the last quarter. 96.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on ESS. Bank of America downgraded Essex Property Trust from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $307.00 to $321.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on shares of Essex Property Trust in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $333.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $269.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 26th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Essex Property Trust from $309.00 to $329.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $283.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Essex Property Trust currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $297.00.

Essex Property Trust Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:ESS opened at $301.02 on Wednesday. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a 52 week low of $218.59 and a 52 week high of $317.73. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $297.02 and its 200-day moving average is $287.81. The firm has a market cap of $19.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.17, a P/E/G ratio of 5.99 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.14.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.88 by ($2.04). The business had revenue of $450.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $445.88 million. Essex Property Trust had a return on equity of 9.72% and a net margin of 31.55%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.78 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Essex Property Trust, Inc. will post 15.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Essex Property Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $2.45 per share. This represents a $9.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. Essex Property Trust’s payout ratio is 114.49%.

Insider Transactions at Essex Property Trust

In other news, CEO Angela L. Kleiman sold 8,080 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.10, for a total transaction of $2,546,008.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,991,559.40. This represents a 45.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Anne Morrison sold 2,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.79, for a total value of $809,325.09. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,321 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $730,627.59. This represents a 52.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 17,949 shares of company stock valued at $5,663,763 in the last quarter. 3.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Essex Property Trust

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.