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Life Storage (LSI) Hikes Dividend by 11.1%: Worth a Look?

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Life Storage, Inc. announced a hike of 11.1% in its quarterly dividend, raising it to $1.20 per share from $1.08. The dividend will be paid out on Jan 26 to shareholders on record as of Jan 13, 2023.

Based on the increase, the annual dividend rate comes to $4.80 a share, up from the prior rate of $4.32. At this new level, it results in an annualized yield of 4.99%, considering Life Storage’s closing price of $96.22 on Jan 3.

Solid dividend payouts remain the biggest enticements for REIT investors, and quite encouragingly, Life Storage is committed to boosting shareholder wealth. The latest increase marks its sixth hike in the last four years and results in a total raise of 79% over the same period.

The stock looks attractive based on the regular rise in dividend income amid a challenging environment. Let’s check out Life Storage’s fundamentals and financial performance before taking any investment decision.

This self-storage REIT focuses on acquiring and managing self-storage facilities and serves residential and commercial storage customers. Life Storage operates more than 1,100 storage facilities in 37 states and the District of Columbia.

In the third quarter, revenues for the 576 stabilized stores wholly owned by LSI since Dec 31, 2020 increased 14.9% year over year. The increase mainly resulted from the impact of 17.1% growth in same-store realized rental rates per square foot, with same-store occupancy for the quarter averaging 93.1%.

Life Storage has a decent performance, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters on an adjusted funds from operations (FFO) per share basis, the average surprise being 4.66%. Moreover, Life Storage’s return on equity (ROE) is 9.73%, significantly higher than the industry’s ROE of 4.65%.

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Although the company’s shares have declined 15.7%, wider than the industry’s fall of 11.2% over the past six months, the favorable estimate revision for LSI’s adjusted FFO per share for the ongoing year implies an upbeat outlook for the company. It has moved a cent up in the past month to $6.44, indicating 27% year-over-year growth.

This REIT churns cash flow of $4.92 per share compared to the industry average of $1.78. Its projected sales growth of 9.72% is higher than the industry average of 6.67%.

We believe such deployment activity highlights Life Storage’s operational strength and commitment to rewarding its shareholders handsomely. The latest hike reflects the company’s ability to generate solid cash flow growth through its operating platform and high-quality portfolio.

Investors are always on the lookout for companies with a track record of consistent and incremental dividend payments to put their money on. Such moves will boost investors’ confidence in the stock.

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

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the REIT sector are VICI Properties Inc. (VICI - Free Report) and Lamar Advertising Company (LAMR - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for VICI Properties’ 2022 FFO per share has moved 3.8% north to $1.92 over the past two months.
 
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Lamar Advertising Company’s ongoing year’s FFO per share has been raised 1.4% over the past two months to $7.34.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represent funds from operations (FFO) — a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.


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