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Alexandria (ARE) Q4 FFO & Revenues Improve, Miss Estimates

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Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE - Free Report) reported fourth-quarter 2017 adjusted FFO of $1.53 per share. The figure missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny. Nonetheless, adjusted FFO per share compares favorably with the prior-year quarter tally of $1.42.

The company witnessed a year-over-year jump in expenses related to rental operations and interest expenses.

Total revenues for the quarter increased 19.9% year over year to $298.8 million. However, the figure missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $299.8 million.

In Details

Alexandria’s total leasing activity aggregated around 1,379,699 rentable square feet (RSF) of space during the quarter. The company carried out lease renewals and re-leasing of space at rental rate increases of 24.8% and 10.4% (cash basis), respectively, in the reported quarter. In addition, key leases executed in the quarter included 520,988 RSF leased to Facebook and the 170,244 RSF renewal with Theravance Biopharma.

On a year-over-year basis, same-property net operating income (NOI) grew 4.5%. It climbed 12.5% on a cash basis. As of fourth-quarter 2017, occupancy for operating properties in North America expanded 70 basis points (bps) sequentially to 96.8%.

As of the fourth quarter, investment-grade tenants accounted for 55% of annual rental revenues in effect. Furthermore, 80% of the annual rental revenues are from Class A properties in AAA locations.

Liquidity

Alexandria exited the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $ 254.4 million, up from $118.6 million recorded at the end of the prior quarter. The company ended the fourth quarter with $2 billion of liquidity.

Our Viewpoint

Urban office real estate investment trust (REIT) — Alexandria — disappointed shareholders with its performance in the fourth quarter. Notably, escalating expenses hindered revenue and occupancy growth enjoyed by the company for its Class A properties. We believe efforts to curb expenses might improve the company’s performance in the upcoming quarters.

Nonetheless, opportunistic acquisitions and significant development and redevelopment projects in place have created a high leased value-creation pipeline. Also, the company has adequate financial flexibility to enhance its market position and continue important buyouts.

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

The stock has inched up 0.4% in the past three months, versus 2.4% decline witnessed by the industry it belongs to.



We now look forward to the earnings releases of other REITs like CubeSmart (CUBE - Free Report) , Diamondrock Hospitality Company (DRH - Free Report) and Cousins Properties (CUZ - Free Report) . CubeSmart is slated to report results on Feb 15, while Diamondrock and Cousins Properties are scheduled to release quarterly numbers on Feb 28 and Feb 7, respectively.

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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