Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Buys 30,252 Shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its stake in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS) by 41.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 103,600 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 30,252 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Equity LifeStyle Properties were worth $6,900,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ELS. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 172.0% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,070,817 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $404,319,000 after acquiring an additional 3,838,809 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 370.6% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 2,329,431 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $166,182,000 after buying an additional 1,834,491 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 592.0% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,626,963 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $116,068,000 after buying an additional 1,391,846 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 14,049.2% in the 3rd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 713,971 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $50,935,000 after buying an additional 708,925 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC bought a new stake in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,391,000. 97.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $69.00 to $68.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $72.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Equity LifeStyle Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $74.00 to $73.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Equity LifeStyle Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $72.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Equity LifeStyle Properties has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $73.78.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:ELS opened at $68.47 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $66.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $68.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.11, a PEG ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 0.79. Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. has a 12-month low of $59.82 and a 12-month high of $76.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 0.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76. Equity LifeStyle Properties had a return on equity of 23.12% and a net margin of 24.05%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.515 per share. This is a boost from Equity LifeStyle Properties’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.01%. Equity LifeStyle Properties’s payout ratio is presently 105.64%.

About Equity LifeStyle Properties

Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the ownership and operation of lifestyle-oriented properties consisting primarily of manufactured home, and recreational vehicle communities. It operates through the following segments: Property Operations and Home Sales and Rentals Operations.