Evercore ISI upgraded Essex Property Trust to Outperform from In Line with a price target of $295, up from $269. While the firm generally remains cautious on the outlook for rent growth across the apartment sector, it has a bias for coastal oriented companies given lower supply trends and relatively stronger new lease growth, says the analyst, whose upgrade is predicated on the company's stronger Q2 update that was released ahead of NAREIT that showed better trends on several key performance indicators, including new lease growth, renewal growth and economic occupancy.
