Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $2.45

Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 15th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th will be paid a dividend of 2.45 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, July 24th. This represents a $9.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.68%.

Essex Property Trust has increased its dividend by an average of 3.6% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 30 consecutive years. Essex Property Trust has a dividend payout ratio of 169.8% 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 $15.62 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 62.7%.

Essex Property Trust Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:ESS opened at $266.63 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 3.19 and a current ratio of 3.19. Essex Property Trust has a 52-week low of $203.85 and a 52-week high of $269.23. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $244.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $235.59. The firm has a market cap of $17.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.74, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.79.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial cut their target price on Essex Property Trust from $259.00 to $255.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Essex Property Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Essex Property Trust from $224.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Essex Property Trust from $239.50 to $243.50 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Mizuho raised Essex Property Trust from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $255.00 to $250.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $255.28.

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.