67 WALL STREET, New York - June 27, 2014 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its REITs Report offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs and Equity Analysts. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
Topics covered: Apartment, Lodging, Self-Storage and Office REITs - Consolidation Activity - REIT Access to Capital - Residential and Commercial REITs - Correlation Between Macroeconomy and Real Estate - Agency Mortgage REITs - Supply and Demand Dynamics - Favorable REIT Fundamentals
Companies include: National Retail Properties, In (NNN), Entertainment Properties Trust (EPR), MFA Financial, Inc. (MFA), Annaly Capital Management, Inc (NLY), Inland Real Estate Corp. (IRC), Anworth Mortgage Asset Corpora (ANH) and many more.
In the following excerpt from the REITs Report, an expert analyst discusses the outlook for the sector for investors:
TWST: Did anything from the most recent quarterly earnings reports and calls stick out for you?
Mr. Altscher: What we find across the net-lease space is that all the companies are still looking at activity in terms of deploying capital and buying new properties. A name like EPR (EPR), which we cover, which is definitely a bit more of a specialized or niche sort of name - not commodity type of assets, but movie theaters, charter schools, day care education, water parks, ski slopes - they are finding areas to deploy capital in all parts of the business.
The rate risk that's out there I think represents interesting opportunities, particularly for those assets that don't get as much of an institutional bid or a competitive bid, to go out there and find assets that may be mispriced or that folks just don't really want yet fit very well within a specialized sort of asset portfolio.
But I think across the board you definitely are seeing folks not slowing down in terms of deploying capital, despite the overall uncertainty in the rate environment. I think management teams in general all acknowledge that cap rates, while low historically, can still be attractive in terms of finding assets to purchase. It's just a matter of finding the right ones and doing the due diligence and doing the underwriting.
It's not one of those scenarios where we all are scared, we are all worried about rates moving higher and cap rates moving higher, so we put on the brakes altogether. It's not that sort of move, but I think some of them may be a little bit more disciplined in finding the right portfolio that makes sense.