Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,990,000 shares, a drop of 10.9% from the November 30th total of 4,480,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,270,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.1 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equity LifeStyle Properties

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Townsquare Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 23.7% during the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 12,835 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $916,000 after purchasing an additional 2,458 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,649,670 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $331,707,000 after buying an additional 39,864 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in Equity LifeStyle Properties by 16.7% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 213,209 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $15,210,000 after acquiring an additional 30,489 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 95.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 32,578 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,311,000 after acquiring an additional 15,899 shares during the period. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its position in shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties by 60.7% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 33,950 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,211,000 after acquiring an additional 12,826 shares during the period. 97.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Price Performance

Shares of ELS stock traded down $0.54 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $66.06. 826,641 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,209,756. The company has a market capitalization of $12.62 billion, a PE ratio of 34.05, a PEG ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 0.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Equity LifeStyle Properties has a 12-month low of $59.82 and a 12-month high of $76.60. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $69.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.27.

Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by ($0.28). Equity LifeStyle Properties had a return on equity of 24.10% and a net margin of 23.97%. The business had revenue of $387.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $315.78 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.71 EPS. Equity LifeStyle Properties’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Equity LifeStyle Properties will post 2.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Equity LifeStyle Properties Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.477 per share. This represents a $1.91 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. Equity LifeStyle Properties’s dividend payout ratio is presently 98.45%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ELS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of 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 research report on Thursday, September 19th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on 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. UBS Group raised Equity LifeStyle Properties to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Equity LifeStyle Properties from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Compass Point upped their price objective on shares of Equity LifeStyle Properties from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.50.

About Equity LifeStyle Properties

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.