Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESRT) Short Interest Down 14.2% in December

Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESRT) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,060,000 shares, a decrease of 14.2% from the December 15th total of 4,730,000 shares. Currently, 3.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,120,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.6 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Empire State Realty Trust

In other Empire State Realty Trust news, EVP Thomas P. Durels sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.10, for a total transaction of $101,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 86,807 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $876,750.70. This represents a 10.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 14.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Empire State Realty Trust

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its position in Empire State Realty Trust by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 45,771 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $472,000 after purchasing an additional 8,346 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Empire State Realty Trust by 46.4% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 39,636 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $409,000 after purchasing an additional 12,553 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its position in Empire State Realty Trust by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 14,349 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $148,000 after purchasing an additional 2,668 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Empire State Realty Trust by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 727,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,482,000 after purchasing an additional 40,042 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Empire State Realty Trust by 6.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,615,985 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $17,905,000 after purchasing an additional 98,850 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ESRT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Empire State Realty Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Empire State Realty Trust from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th.

Empire State Realty Trust Stock Performance

ESRT stock traded up $0.05 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $9.65. 956,733 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 882,096. Empire State Realty Trust has a twelve month low of $8.78 and a twelve month high of $11.62. The company has a quick ratio of 3.72, a current ratio of 3.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $10.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.72 and a beta of 1.41.

Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE:ESRT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.24 by ($0.16). Empire State Realty Trust had a net margin of 6.22% and a return on equity of 2.73%. The company had revenue of $199.60 million for the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.25 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Empire State Realty Trust will post 0.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Empire State Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a $0.035 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.45%. Empire State Realty Trust’s payout ratio is 51.85%.

About Empire State Realty Trust

Empire State Realty Trust, Inc (NYSE: ESRT) is a NYC-focused REIT that owns and operates a portfolio of modernized, amenitized, and well-located office, retail, and multifamily assets. The company is the recognized leader in energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality. ESRT’s flagship Empire State Building – the “World’s Most Famous Building” – includes its Observatory, Tripadvisor’s 2023 Travelers’ Choice Awards: Best of the Best the #1 attraction in the US for two consecutive years.