Townsquare Capital LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS)

Townsquare Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS) by 23.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,835 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,458 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC’s holdings in Equity LifeStyle Properties were worth $916,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 370.6% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 2,329,431 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $166,182,000 after acquiring an additional 1,834,491 shares during the period. PGGM Investments grew its holdings in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 4,586.1% in the second quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 1,843,496 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $120,067,000 after purchasing an additional 1,804,156 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 56.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,232,008 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $159,232,000 after buying an additional 805,681 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new stake in Equity LifeStyle Properties during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $54,866,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,609,806 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $300,237,000 after buying an additional 331,945 shares during the period. 97.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ELS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $76.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Compass Point boosted their price objective on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $70.50 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, September 19th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “hold” rating and a $72.00 target price for the company. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.50.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Price Performance

ELS stock opened at $70.35 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $70.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $68.51. The company has a market capitalization of $13.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.26, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.79. Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. has a twelve month low of $59.82 and a twelve month high of $76.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 0.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.72 by ($0.28). Equity LifeStyle Properties had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 24.10%. The company had revenue of $387.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $315.78 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. will post 2.92 EPS for the current year.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.477 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.91 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. Equity LifeStyle Properties’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.45%.

Insider Activity at Equity LifeStyle Properties

In other Equity LifeStyle Properties news, CFO Paul Seavey sold 31,988 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.83, for a total value of $2,393,662.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 148,463 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,109,486.29. This trade represents a 17.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Marguerite M. Nader sold 33,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.52, for a total transaction of $2,492,160.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 260,936 shares in the company, valued at $19,705,886.72. The trade was a 11.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Equity LifeStyle Properties

We are a self-administered, self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) with headquarters in Chicago. As of January 29, 2024, we own or have an interest in 451 properties in 35 states and British Columbia consisting of 172,465 sites.