Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) Receives $282.97 Consensus PT from Analysts

Posted by Brenda Bartman on May 12th, 2026

Shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS – Get Free Report) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eighteen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $283.2813.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Essex Property Trust from $268.00 to $262.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Essex Property Trust in a report on Friday, February 27th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Essex Property Trust from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Essex Property Trust from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Essex Property Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $275.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Monday, May 4th.

View Our Latest Stock Report on ESS

Institutional Trading of Essex Property Trust

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Essex Property Trust by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,873,698 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $488,601,000 after purchasing an additional 22,835 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Essex Property Trust by 21.9% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,679,607 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $439,520,000 after purchasing an additional 301,349 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Essex Property Trust by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 1,157,617 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $309,848,000 after purchasing an additional 100,730 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 6.1% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 995,810 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $240,989,000 after buying an additional 57,173 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Essex Property Trust by 31.3% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 958,090 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $250,714,000 after buying an additional 228,165 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.51% of the company’s stock.

Essex Property Trust Trading Up 1.9%

Essex Property Trust stock opened at $268.59 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $252.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $255.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. Essex Property Trust has a 52 week low of $238.46 and a 52 week high of $294.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.18, a P/E/G ratio of 8.26 and a beta of 0.71.

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by ($2.31). The business had revenue of $484.76 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $479.89 million. Essex Property Trust had a net margin of 30.03% and a return on equity of 10.00%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.97 EPS. Essex Property Trust has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 3.920-4.040 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Essex Property Trust will post 16.03 EPS for the current year.

Essex Property Trust Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st were paid a $2.59 dividend. This represents a $10.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. This is a boost from Essex Property Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 31st. Essex Property Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 116.40%.

About Essex Property Trust

(Get Free Report)

Essex Property Trust, Inc (NYSE: ESS) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires, develops, owns and operates multifamily residential properties. The company focuses on market-rate apartment communities and delivers a full suite of property services including leasing, resident services, asset management, and capital improvement programs designed to preserve and enhance long‑term property values.

Essex concentrates its portfolio in West Coast markets, with a significant presence in California and the Pacific Northwest.