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Essex Property Q3 FFO and Revenues Beat, '24 View Raised

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Essex Property Trust Inc. (ESS - Free Report) reported third-quarter 2024 core funds from operations (FFO) per share of $3.91, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.88. The figure also improved 3.4% from the year-ago quarter.

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Results reflect favorable growth in same-property revenues and net operating income (NOI). ESS also raised its full-year 2024 guidance.

Total revenues of $450.7 million outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $445.9 million. Revenues were up 7.5% year over year.

Essex Property Trust, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Essex Property Trust, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Essex Property Trust, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Essex Property Trust, Inc. Quote

Essex Property’s Q3 in Detail

In the third quarter, Essex Property’s same-property revenues increased 3.5% from the prior-year period. However, same-property operating expenses rose 5.5% year over year.

Same-property NOI jumped 2.6% year over year. Financial occupancies of 96.2% in the third quarter contracted 20 basis points (bps) year over year and remained unchanged sequentially. Our estimate for the metric stood at 96.4%.

The year-over-year blended rate growth for the third quarter of 2024 came in at 2.5% compared to 3.4% achieved in the second quarter of 2024.

During the quarter, Essex acquired and consolidated two joint venture apartment home communities in San Jose, CA, at a combined valuation of $290.5 million on a gross basis.

Essex Property’s Balance Sheet

Essex Property exited the third quarter of 2024 with cash and cash equivalents, including restricted cash, of $80.2 million, up from $64.2 million recorded at the end of the second quarter of 2024. ESS had $1.2 billion in liquidity through the undrawn capacity on its unsecured credit facilities, cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities as of Oct. 28, 2024.

The company ended the quarter with a total net debt of $6.37 billion and net debt-to-Adjusted EBITDAre of 5.5X. ESS ended the quarter with a weighted average interest rate of 3.6% and a weighted average years to maturity of 7 years.

Essex Property’s 2024 Guidance

For the fourth quarter of 2024, Essex Property projects core FFO per share in the range of $3.82-$3.94, with the midpoint being $3.88. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $3.89.

For 2024, the company revised the core FFO per share guidance to the range of $15.50-$15.62, with the midpoint being $15.56, from the earlier range of $15.38-$15.62. The Zacks Consensus Estimate of $15.55 stands within this range.

ESS now projects same-property revenue growth on a cash basis in the range of 3.1%-3.4%, revised from the 2.7%-3.3% range projected earlier. It expects operating expense growth to remain unchanged from the prior guidance range of 4.5%-5%. NOI is projected to grow in the range of 2.3%-2.9%, up from the 1.8%-2.8% band projected earlier.

Essex Property currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Upcoming Earnings Releases

We now look forward to the earnings releases of other REITs, such as AvalonBay Communities (AVB - Free Report) and Vornado Realty Trust (VNO - Free Report) , both of which are slated to report on Nov. 4.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AvalonBay’s third-quarter 2024 FFO per share stands at $2.71, indicating a 1.9% increase year over year. AVB currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Vornado Realty Trust’s third-quarter 2024 FFO per share is pegged at 51 cents, implying a 22.7% year-over-year decline. VNO currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.

Note: Anything related to earningspresented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.


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