Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) Upgraded by Wells Fargo & Company to Overweight

Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report published on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has $82.00 price target on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their previous price target of $70.50.

ELS has been the subject of several other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a sector perform rating and set a $68.00 price objective on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a research report on Monday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $70.67.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Stock Performance

Shares of ELS stock opened at $73.54 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $70.84 and a 200 day moving average of $66.02. Equity LifeStyle Properties has a 52 week low of $59.82 and a 52 week high of $76.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.19, a PEG ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 0.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by ($0.23). Equity LifeStyle Properties had a return on equity of 23.71% and a net margin of 23.56%. The business had revenue of $380.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $334.53 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.66 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Equity LifeStyle Properties will post 2.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.4775 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 27th. This is an increase from Equity LifeStyle Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $1.91 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.60%. Equity LifeStyle Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 104.37%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Patrick Waite sold 20,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.23, for a total transaction of $1,462,188.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 221,777 shares in the company, valued at $15,575,398.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Paul Seavey sold 31,988 shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 148,463 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,109,486.29. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Patrick Waite sold 20,820 shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.23, for a total value of $1,462,188.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 221,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,575,398.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 85,808 shares of company stock worth $6,348,011 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equity LifeStyle Properties

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in Equity LifeStyle Properties in the 2nd quarter worth about $119,000. Cim LLC increased its holdings in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 7.2% in the 2nd quarter. Cim LLC now owns 41,573 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,007,000 after buying an additional 2,779 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Equity LifeStyle Properties in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,010,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 744.8% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 251,747 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $16,396,000 after buying an additional 221,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in Equity LifeStyle Properties in the 2nd quarter worth about $4,885,000. 97.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Company Profile

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.