Essential Properties Realty Trust (NYSE:EPRT) Rating Lowered to “Sell” at Wall Street Zen

Essential Properties Realty Trust (NYSE:EPRT) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on EPRT. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Essential Properties Realty Trust in a report on Thursday, October 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $31.00 price target for the company. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Essential Properties Realty Trust from $30.00 to $29.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on Essential Properties Realty Trust from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $37.00 target price on shares of Essential Properties Realty Trust in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Essential Properties Realty Trust from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $33.23.

Essential Properties Realty Trust Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of EPRT stock opened at $26.64 on Friday. Essential Properties Realty Trust has a fifty-two week low of $24.62 and a fifty-two week high of $34.73. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $27.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $30.01. The stock has a market cap of $5.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 4.94, a current ratio of 4.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

Essential Properties Realty Trust (NYSE:EPRT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.06). Essential Properties Realty Trust had a return on equity of 5.95% and a net margin of 41.03%. The business had revenue of $168.67 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $158.17 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.48 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Essential Properties Realty Trust will post 1.96 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Essential Properties Realty Trust

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of EPRT. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Essential Properties Realty Trust in the second quarter valued at about $1,183,153,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Essential Properties Realty Trust by 6.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,101,020 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,151,000 after buying an additional 184,196 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Essential Properties Realty Trust by 3.9% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,771,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $84,156,000 after buying an additional 103,311 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Essential Properties Realty Trust during the second quarter valued at approximately $52,056,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Essential Properties Realty Trust during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $51,164,000. Institutional investors own 96.98% of the company’s stock.

Essential Properties Realty Trust Company Profile

Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc (NYSE:EPRT) is an internally managed real estate investment trust that acquires, owns and manages single-tenant commercial properties. The company primarily leases these properties to middle-market businesses under long-term, net lease agreements, which generally require tenants to pay a substantial portion of the property’s operating expenses, including taxes, insurance and maintenance.

EPRT’s portfolio is diversified across businesses such as automotive services, medical services, restaurants, retail, early childhood education and other service-oriented industries.