Essex Property Trust Inc (ESS) is slightly undervalued and UDR Inc (UDR) is slightly overvalued.
Against our estimates of intrinsic value, ESS trades at the wider discount: a margin of safety of +7%, against -15% for UDR.
Values as of the 22 Sept 2026 close.
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
Discounting its cash flows at 8.4% (average of 3 methods) values the shares at $29.78; the price of $34.10 is 15% above that value, and 78% of that value comes from beyond year five.
Leak Score 50/100 on 9 of 12 signals
| Metric | ESS | UDR |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Slightly undervalued | Slightly overvalued |
| Price | $274.76 | $34.10 |
| Intrinsic value | $294.00 | $29.78 |
| Margin of safety | +7% | -15% |
| Leak Score | 47/100 (9/12) | 50/100 (9/12) |
| Market cap | $18.3B | $17.8B |
| Revenue growth, 5 years | 4.8% | 6.7% |
| Operating margin | 29.3% | 19.0% |
| Net margin | 21.5% | 30.1% |
| Return on equity | 7.5% | 16.7% |
| Debt to equity | 1.27 | 2.04 |
| P/E | 42.8x | 21.7x |
| Forward P/E | 43.6x | 58.6x |
| P/B | 3.3x | 3.8x |
| Dividend yield | 3.8% | 5.1% |