Pacer Advisors Inc. Acquires 639 Shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS)

Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) by 13.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,359 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 639 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Essex Property Trust were worth $1,530,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ESS. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Essex Property Trust by 60.6% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $13,747,000 after purchasing an additional 19,062 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Essex Property Trust by 0.3% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 20,707 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,636,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Essex Property Trust during the second quarter worth $384,000. Czech National Bank lifted its position in shares of Essex Property Trust by 6.9% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 13,080 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,864,000 after purchasing an additional 845 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Essex Property Trust by 20.9% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,097 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $324,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. 96.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on ESS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Essex Property Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $297.00 to $303.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Essex Property Trust from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $323.00 to $310.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Essex Property Trust from $314.00 to $305.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. Raymond James downgraded Essex Property Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Essex Property Trust in a report on Thursday, January 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $304.32.

Essex Property Trust Price Performance

Shares of ESS stock opened at $284.32 on Friday. Essex Property Trust, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $223.06 and a fifty-two week high of $317.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.22, a PEG ratio of 6.42 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.14. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $288.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $292.16.

Essex Property Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were paid a dividend of $2.45 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $9.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.45%. Essex Property Trust’s payout ratio is 114.49%.

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.