Sector: Financial Symbol: WRI
Industry: REIT -Retail Exchange: NYSE Sales Volume: 545,006
Price: 26.41
High: 28.99
Low: 19.32
Target: 28.89
Market Cap: 3.20B
Dividend Yield: 1.16 (4.40%)
FFO per share (2011): 1.44
FFO per share (Mar 31): 0.45
FFO per share (Jun 30): 0.45
FFO per share (Sep 30): 0.45
Company description: Weingarten Realty Investors, based in Houston, Texas, is operating in two segments, Shopping Center and Industrial. The Shopping Center segment includes the acquisition, development, and management of real estate, mainly anchored neighborhood and community shopping centers. The Industrial segment engages in the acquisition, development, and management of bulk warehouses and office/service centers. Weingarten became a publicly-held company in August 1985. The Company is one of the largest equity REITs listed on the New York Exchange and has consistently been ranked as one of the nation’s leading developers/owners of community shopping centers.
Investment Thesis:
Over the last quarter the company has managed to improve operations and leasing from 93.9 to 95-plus percent occupancy, which is 20 bp from previous quarter and 110 bp from 2011. With an increase in rent, WRI managed to increase NOI by 4.9%. The company continues capital recycling in order to improve overall portfolio. YTD disposition is $565 million. The company has redeployed $114 million with the purchase of 2 new shopping centers and interest in new ventures.
Buy/Hold/Sell Recommendation: My recommendation for this REIT is buy. The company is constantly working on improving its portfolio. It managed to improve its occupancy percent as well as growth of NOI 4.9%. In addition, the company shows growth in comparison with last year. With the beginning of real estate market recovery, WRI stock grew 15.87% YTD, as well as NOI Q3 2012 $31.4M in comparison with Q3 2011