Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. Buys Shares of 3,359 Essex Property Trust, Inc. $ESS

Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. bought a new stake in shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 3,359 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $880,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Essex Property Trust by 1.2% during 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 buying an additional 22,835 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Essex Property Trust by 21.9% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,679,607 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $439,520,000 after buying an additional 301,349 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Essex Property Trust by 9.5% during the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 1,157,617 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $309,848,000 after buying an additional 100,730 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Essex Property Trust by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 950,748 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $248,792,000 after buying an additional 29,466 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Essex Property Trust by 0.6% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 929,187 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $248,703,000 after buying an additional 5,483 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on ESS. Evercore upgraded Essex Property Trust from a “cautious” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $295.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday. Piper Sandler raised shares of Essex Property Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $275.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $293.00 price target on shares of Essex Property Trust in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $262.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Essex Property Trust from $278.00 to $281.50 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Essex Property Trust has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $286.97.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Mary Kasaris sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.45, for a total value of $167,670.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,394 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $669,003.30. The trade was a 20.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 3.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Essex Property Trust Stock Performance

Essex Property Trust stock opened at $278.33 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $260.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $257.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $238.46 and a fifty-two week high of $294.09. The company has a market capitalization of $17.89 billion, a PE ratio of 31.27, a P/E/G ratio of 11.99 and a beta of 0.72.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.96 by ($2.31). Essex Property Trust had a net margin of 30.03% and a return on equity of 10.00%. The company had revenue of $484.76 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $479.89 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.97 EPS. Essex Property Trust has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 3.920-4.040 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Essex Property Trust, Inc. will post 16.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Essex Property Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be paid a $2.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 30th. This represents a $10.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. Essex Property Trust’s payout ratio is 116.40%.

About Essex Property Trust

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.