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Healthpeak Properties' Strong Performance Leads to '24 Guidance Raise

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Healthpeak Properties (DOC - Free Report) recently announced that it has increased its 2024 guidance due to the strong performance of its high-quality lab, outpatient medical (OM) and continuity care retirement community (CCRC) portfolio.

Healthpeak now expects funds from operations (FFO) as adjusted per share in the range of $1.80-$1.82, up from the $1.79-$1.81 range guided earlier. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is currently pegged at $1.80 per share. DOC expects total merger-combined same-store cash (adjusted) net operating income (NOI) growth of 4.0%-5.0% compared with the prior expectation of 3.5%-4.5%.

Healthpeak Properties Witnesses Strong Demand

Since the beginning of 2024 through Nov. 18, 2024, Healthpeak has executed around 1.7 million square feet of leases in its lab portfolio. During the same period, DOC has executed 5.3 million square feet of leases in its outpatient medical portfolio.

The increasing life expectancy of the U.S. population and biopharma drug development growth opportunities have promoted the lab real estate market fundamentals. Healthpeak’s focus on the lab segment is a strategic fit, and it expects the majority of its future growth to be driven by such assets.  An increasing healthcare expenditure resulting from a rise in senior citizens’ population in the years ahead provides a strong upside potential for Healthpeak’s CCRC portfolio.

Healthpeak has recycled capital through dispositions of non-core assets to acquire and fund the development of lab and outpatient medical assets in high barrier-to-entry markets. As per the November presentation, DOC has sold off 72 non-core assets for $876 million, fortifying its leading OM portfolio with retained assets enjoying enhanced occupancy of 96%.

An under-levered balance sheet provides room for easy availability of debt to fund accretive investments. Healthpeak has been taking steps to bolster its near-term liquidity. As of Nov. 18, 2024, the company had a total liquidity of around $3 billion and a net debt-to-adjusted EBITDAre of 5.1X, with a weighted average debt maturity of 4.4 years and a weighted average interest rate of 3.7%.

Analysts also seem positive about this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company, with the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its 2024 FFO per share being raised marginally northward to $1.80 over the past month. Shares of DOC have risen 5.4% year to date compared with the industry’s upside of 2.8%.

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader REIT sector are Cousins Properties (CUZ - Free Report) and Welltower (WELL - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cousins Properties’ 2024 FFO per share stands at $2.68, which indicates an increase of 2.3% from the year-ago reported figure.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Welltower’s 2024 FFO per share is pegged at $4.26, which suggests year-over-year growth of 17.0%.

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


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