Public Storage (PSA) Q1 FFO And Revenues Miss Estimates

Public Storage’s (NYSE:PSA) first-quarter 2017 funds from operations (“FFO”) per share of $2.34 missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.43. Quarterly revenues of $645.5 million also fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $655.8 million.

However, on a year-over-year basis, FFO per share registered growth of 11.4% from the prior-year quarter tally of $2.10. In addition, revenues were up 5.5% from the year-ago quarter figure. Results reflect an improvement in net operating income (“NOI”) from both same-store and non-same store facilities.

Behind the Headlines

Same-store revenues advanced 4.0% year over year to $538.3 million during the first quarter, while NOI climbed 4.1% to $388.9 million. The increase in same-store revenues was primarily driven by a 4.9% rise in realized annual rental income per occupied square feet to $16.81. However, the weighted-average square foot occupancy of 93.1% contracted 50 basis points year over year.

In addition, the company’s NOI from non-same store facilities enhanced on the back of 283 self-storage facilities acquired, developed or expanded since Jan 2015.

Portfolio Activity

In the reported quarter, Public Storage bought four self-storage facilities, comprising 0.2 million net rentable square feet, for $23 million. Following the quarter end, the company acquired or was under contract to acquire five self-storage facilities, spanning 0.3 million net rentable square feet, for $25 million.

Finally, as of Mar 31, 2017, the company had several facilities in development (4.0 million net rentable square feet), with an estimated cost of $470 million, as well as expansion projects (1.2 million net rentable square feet) worth roughly $148 million. Public Storage projects to incur the remaining $413 million of development costs related to these projects mainly over the next 18 months.

Liquidity

Public Storage exited first-quarter 2017 with around $120.9 million of cash and cash equivalents, down from $183.7 million at the end of the prior year.

Dividend

On Apr 26, Public Storage’s Board of Trustees declared a quarterly dividend of $2.00 per share. The amount will be paid on Jun 29 to shareholders of record as of Jun 14.

In Conclusion

Public Storage is a recognized and established name in the self-storage industry in the U.S., and its acquisition and expansion efforts look encouraging. Additionally, the self-storage industry is expected to experience solid demand backed by favorable demographic changes moving ahead. However, rising supply in a number of its markets is a headwind. Rate hike also remains a concern for the company.

Public Storage currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

However, shares of Public Storage underperformed the Zacks categorized REIT and Equity Trust – Other industry over the past three months. Over this time frame, Public Storage shares logged in a return of 3.4% against 5.2% growth recorded by the industry.

Let us now look forward to the earnings releases of Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR) , Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:HST) and GGP Inc. (NYSE:GGP) , all of which are expected to report their quarterly figures over the next few days.

Note: All EPS numbers presented in this write up represent funds from operations (“FFO”) per share. FFO, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income.

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