Essex Property Trust, Inc. (ESS) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $2.57 on April 15th

Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of 2.57 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $10.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.49%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This is a boost from Essex Property Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.45.

Essex Property Trust has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 30 years. Essex Property Trust has a payout ratio of 158.3% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Essex Property Trust to earn $16.58 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $9.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 59.1%.

Essex Property Trust Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of ESS opened at $294.47 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Essex Property Trust has a 12-month low of $225.40 and a 12-month high of $317.73. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $284.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $292.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.52, a P/E/G ratio of 6.77 and a beta of 0.92.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The real estate investment trust reported $3.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $2.52. Essex Property Trust had a net margin of 41.79% and a return on equity of 13.05%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Essex Property Trust will post 15.96 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on ESS. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $297.00 to $302.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Essex Property Trust from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $308.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $302.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Essex Property Trust from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $323.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Essex Property Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $297.00 to $303.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Essex Property Trust presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $306.63.

Essex Property Trust Company Profile

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.