Equity Lifestyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Equity Lifestyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Equity Lifestyle Properties from $82.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Equity Lifestyle Properties in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Compass Point upgraded shares of Equity Lifestyle Properties from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Truist Financial set a $68.00 target price on shares of Equity Lifestyle Properties and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Equity Lifestyle Properties from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Equity Lifestyle Properties presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $71.05.

Equity Lifestyle Properties Stock Up 0.1%

Equity Lifestyle Properties stock opened at $62.98 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $62.12. Equity Lifestyle Properties has a fifty-two week low of $58.15 and a fifty-two week high of $73.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.63, a PEG ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.04 and a quick ratio of 0.04.

Equity Lifestyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.69. Equity Lifestyle Properties had a net margin of 24.13% and a return on equity of 21.12%. The business had revenue of $313.29 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $377.59 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. Equity Lifestyle Properties’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Equity Lifestyle Properties will post 3.07 EPS for the current year.

Equity Lifestyle Properties Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 26th were issued a $0.515 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 26th. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Equity Lifestyle Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 106.74%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equity Lifestyle Properties

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Equity Lifestyle Properties by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,151,151 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,677,582,000 after buying an additional 97,306 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Equity Lifestyle Properties by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,268,436 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $824,943,000 after buying an additional 237,090 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Equity Lifestyle Properties by 4.6% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,349,010 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $423,479,000 after buying an additional 278,193 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Equity Lifestyle Properties by 15.1% during the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,330,066 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $355,515,000 after buying an additional 699,877 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Equity Lifestyle Properties by 12.2% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,724,515 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $291,363,000 after buying an additional 515,063 shares during the last quarter. 97.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Equity Lifestyle Properties Company Profile

Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the ownership and operation of lifestyle-oriented properties consisting primarily of manufactured home, and recreational vehicle communities. It operates through the following segments: Property Operations and Home Sales and Rentals Operations.