Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) Upgraded to Buy at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have $80.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $72.00.

ELS has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Equity LifeStyle Properties from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $70.50 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties from $76.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Compass Point boosted their price objective on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $73.30.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Trading Up 1.7 %

NYSE ELS opened at $67.79 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.03 and a quick ratio of 0.03. Equity LifeStyle Properties has a 12 month low of $59.82 and a 12 month high of $76.60. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $69.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $69.34.

Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.72 by ($0.28). The company had revenue of $387.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $315.78 million. Equity LifeStyle Properties had a return on equity of 24.10% and a net margin of 23.97%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.71 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Equity LifeStyle Properties will post 2.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a $0.477 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.91 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.81%. Equity LifeStyle Properties’s payout ratio is currently 98.45%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equity LifeStyle Properties

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Equity LifeStyle Properties during the 4th quarter worth $354,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 23.3% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,763 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $117,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 3.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,761,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $339,713,000 after purchasing an additional 147,332 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 56.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,232,008 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $159,232,000 after buying an additional 805,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 809,801 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $55,034,000 after buying an additional 59,243 shares during the period. 97.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.