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Stifel Cuts Essex Property Trust (ESS) PT to $278 After Q4 Review, Keeps Hold

Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) is included among the 13 Cheapest Dividend Aristocrats to Invest in.

On February 5, Stifel trimmed its price recommendation on Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) to $278 from $290.75. It reiterated a Hold rating on the stock. The adjustment followed updates to the firm’s estimates after reviewing the company’s fourth-quarter results.

Essex reported its Q4 2025 numbers the same day. During the earnings call, President and CEO Angela Kleiman said full-year same-store revenue growth landed at the top end of the company’s guidance range. FFO per share also came in above the midpoint of expectations. She attributed the results to tight coordination between on-site property teams and corporate operations. Other income showed solid growth, and delinquency recovery rates improved to levels close to where they stood before the pandemic.

Northern California stood out. Kleiman said the region performed better than anticipated, helped by ongoing expansion in the technology sector, steady migration trends, and limited housing supply. Rent growth across most of Essex’s markets outpaced the national average. Occupancy rose 20 basis points from the prior quarter to 96.3%, while concessions averaged about one week. Los Angeles posted the largest occupancy gain, climbing 70 basis points sequentially.

On the capital allocation front, Kleiman noted that non-portfolio institutional multifamily transactions totaled $12.6 billion in 2025, a 43% increase from 2024. She added that Essex has been the largest investor in Northern California over the past two years.

Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESS) is a self-managed REIT focused on acquiring, developing, redeveloping, and operating apartment communities in select West Coast markets.

While we acknowledge the potential of ESS as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ESS and that has a 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 13 Best Roth IRA Stocks to Buy Now and Dividend Champions, Contenders and Challengers list: 15 Highest Yielding Stocks

Disclosure. None.

The $250 Trillion AI Hype is Real. A few years from now, you’ll probably wish you’d bought this stock.

When Jeff Bezos said that one breakthrough technology would shape Amazon’s destiny, even Wall Street’s biggest analysts were caught off guard.

Fast forward a year and Amazon’s new CEO Andy Jassy described generative AI as a “once-in-a-lifetime” technology that is already being used across Amazon to reinvent customer experiences.

At the 8th Future Investment Initiative conference, Elon Musk predicted that by 2040 there would be at least 10 billion humanoid robots, with each priced between $20,000 and $25,000.

Do the math. According to Musk, this technology could be worth $250 trillion by 2040.

Put another way, that’s roughly equal to:

  • 175 Teslas
  • 107 Amazons
  • 140 Metas
  • 84 Googles
  • 65 Microsofts
  • And 55 Nvidias

And here’s the wild part — this $250 trillion wave isn’t tied to one company, but to an entire ecosystem of AI innovators set to reshape the global economy.

It’s a leap so massive, it could reshape how businesses, governments, and consumers operate worldwide.

Even if that $250 trillion figure sounds ambitious, major firms like PwC and McKinsey still see AI unlocking multi-trillion-dollar potential.

How could anything be worth that much?

The answer lies in a breakthrough so powerful it’s redefining how humanity works, learns, and creates.

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  • Bill Gates sees artificial intelligence as the “biggest technological advance in my lifetime,” more transformative than the internet or personal computer, capable of improving healthcare, education, and addressing climate change.
  • Larry Ellison — through Oracle, is spending billions on Nvidia chips and partnering with Cohere to embed generative AI across Oracle’s cloud and apps.
  • Warren Buffett — not known for tech hype — says this breakthrough could have a ‘hugely beneficial social impact.

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