Scotiabank Cuts Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) Price Target to $278.00

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) had its price objective decreased by Scotiabank from $284.00 to $278.00 in a research note published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $283.00 to $273.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $279.00 to $281.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Essex Property Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $305.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and set a $282.00 price target (down from $304.00) on shares of Essex Property Trust in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on Essex Property Trust from $275.00 to $284.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $282.00.

Essex Property Trust Price Performance

Shares of Essex Property Trust stock opened at $255.28 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The company has a market cap of $16.46 billion, a PE ratio of 24.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.12 and a beta of 0.73. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $255.13 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $259.06. Essex Property Trust has a fifty-two week low of $243.25 and a fifty-two week high of $310.10.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The real estate investment trust reported $3.98 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.00 by ($0.02). Essex Property Trust had a net margin of 35.48% and a return on equity of 11.61%. The company had revenue of $479.63 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $474.66 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.92 EPS. Essex Property Trust has set its FY 2026 guidance at 15.690-16.190 EPS and its Q1 2026 guidance at 3.890-4.010 EPS. Analysts expect that Essex Property Trust will post 15.96 EPS for the current year.

Essex Property Trust Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be issued a $2.59 dividend. This represents a $10.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st. This is a positive change from Essex Property Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.57. Essex Property Trust’s payout ratio is currently 98.75%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Essex Property Trust

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ESS. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Essex Property Trust by 0.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,493,313 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,973,805,000 after buying an additional 53,039 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Essex Property Trust by 2.5% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,388,169 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,540,570,000 after acquiring an additional 129,806 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Essex Property Trust by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,873,698 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $488,601,000 after acquiring an additional 22,835 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 21.9% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,679,607 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $439,520,000 after acquiring an additional 301,349 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 1,157,617 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $309,848,000 after acquiring an additional 100,730 shares in the last quarter. 96.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Essex Property Trust Company Profile

Essex Property Trust, Inc (NYSE: ESS) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires, develops, owns and operates multifamily residential properties. The company focuses on market-rate apartment communities and delivers a full suite of property services including leasing, resident services, asset management, and capital improvement programs designed to preserve and enhance long‑term property values.

Essex concentrates its portfolio in West Coast markets, with a significant presence in California and the Pacific Northwest.