Essex Property Trust, Inc. vs Msci Inc — how do they compare? Essex Property Trust, Inc. trades at $282.11 (market cap $18.20B), while Msci Inc trades at $562 (market cap $40.94B). The key difference: Msci Inc is far larger — about 2.2× Essex Property Trust, Inc.'s market cap, and Essex Property Trust, Inc. pays the higher dividend (3.66%). Which is the better fit depends on your goals.
| ESS | MSCI | |
|---|---|---|
Market Cap | $18.20B | $40.94B |
Sector | Real Estate | Financials |
52-Week High | $298.33 | $643.83 |
52-Week Low | $239.61 | $511.84 |
Enterprise Value | $24.80B | $47.10B |
Dividend Yield | 3.66% | 1.46% |
Signals from Pluang's Aura AI — not financial advice
ESS trades at $288.1, up 1.05% daily, with a neutral technical signal and support near $284. The stock shows strong profitability with a 21.48% net margin and recent Q2 2026 earnings miss on EPS but beat on FFO, leading to raised full-year guidance. Revenue growth is steady, reaching $1.89B in 2025, though net income declined to $670M from $742M in 2024.
Outlook is cautiously optimistic with a consensus price target of $305.86, implying ~6% upside. Risks include high debt levels (debt-to-asset ratio of 51.92% in 2024) and regional economic exposure. Analyst sentiment is mixed with 40% buy ratings, but institutional interest grew with Amundi increasing its stake in Q1 2026.
MSCI trades at $563.17, down 0.72% with bearish technical signals but strong fundamentals including 40.73% net margins and consistent earnings beats. The company shows robust revenue growth from $2.2B in 2022 to $3.13B in 2025, with positive cash flow trends. Recent acquisitions like First Street and partnerships with UBS enhance its private markets platform, supporting long-term growth in climate risk analytics and alternative investments.
Wall Street maintains strong bullish sentiment with 73% buy ratings and a $728.14 consensus target, implying 29% upside. Key risks include high debt levels at $4.51B and sensitivity to market cycles, but recurring revenue models and strategic expansions position MSCI for sustained outperformance despite near-term technical weakness.
Trailing returns across standard periods
Essex Property Trust owns a portfolio of 253 apartment communities with over 62,000 units and is developing three additional properties with 571 units. The company focuses on owning large, high-quality properties on the West Coast in the urban and suburban submarkets of Southern California, Northern California, and Seattle.
Read more on ESS →MSCI describes its mission as enabling investors to build better portfolios for a better world. MSCI's largest and most profitable segment is its index segment, where it provides benchmarking to asset managers and asset owners. In addition, it boasts over $1 trillion in ETF assets linked to MSCI indexes. The MSCI analytics segment provides portfolio management and risk management analytics software to asset managers and asset owners. MSCI's all other segment was broken out into ESG and climate and private assets segments in 2021. In ESG and climate, MSCI provides ESG data to the investment industry. In the private assets side, MSCI provides real restate reporting, market data, benchmarking, and analytics to investors and real estate managers.
Read more on MSCI →