Camden Property Trust (CPT) is overvalued and Essex Property Trust Inc (ESS) is slightly undervalued.
Against our estimates of intrinsic value, ESS trades at the wider discount: a margin of safety of +7%, against -209% for CPT.
Values as of the 22 Sept 2026 close.
Discounting its cash flows at 8.2% (average of 2 methods) values the shares at $32.17; the price of $99.31 is 209% above that value, and 79% of that value comes from beyond year five.
Leak Score 0/100 on 2 of 12 signals
Discounting its cash flows at 8.9% (average of 3 methods) values the shares at $294.00; the price of $274.76 is 7% below that value, and 76% of that value comes from beyond year five.
Leak Score 47/100 on 9 of 12 signals
| Metric | CPT | ESS |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Overvalued | Slightly undervalued |
| Price | $99.31 | $274.76 |
| Intrinsic value | $32.17 | $294.00 |
| Margin of safety | -209% | +7% |
| Leak Score | 0/100 (2/12) | 47/100 (9/12) |
| Market cap | $13.4B | $18.3B |
| Revenue growth, 5 years | 8.5% | 4.8% |
| Operating margin | 17.7% | 29.3% |
| Net margin | 20.6% | 21.5% |
| Return on equity | 7.8% | 7.5% |
| Debt to equity | 1.28 | 1.27 |
| P/E | 32.9x | 42.8x |
| Forward P/E | 87.8x | 43.6x |
| P/B | 2.7x | 3.3x |
| Dividend yield | 4.3% | 3.8% |