Michael Edwards
REITs ended the week slightly lower than last week as Q4 earnings failed to impress.
AGNC Investment’s (AGNC) earnings continued to drop in the quarter, while Weyerhaeuser (WY) posted earnings that fell both sequentially and from a year ago. Crown Castle’s (CCI) earnings and revenue beat Wall Street expectations. But the telecom tower REIT only reaffirmed its 2024 guidance, as part of which the company’s site rental revenues are expected to decrease by 2% and AFFO by 8%.
Office REIT SL Green Realty (SLG) was an outlier, posting a revenue beat and raising its 2024 guidance on the back of gains from extinguishing discounted debt. But its Q4 earnings were hurt by charges.
FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs declined by 0.78% from last week to $730.34, while the Dow Jones Equity All REIT Total Return Index fell 0.80% to $2,382.
On the contrary, FTSE Nareit Mortgage REITs index rose by 0.73% to $2.77 as favorable economic data aroused expectations of a rate cut at the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting, scheduled for Jan. 30-31.
Meanwhile, S&P 500 rose by 1.06%, helped by technology and energy stocks.
Despite the rate cut expectations, the broader real estate index, Real Estate Select Sector SPDR ETF, was down 0.54% to end at $38.49.
Mortgage REIT Arbor Realty Trust (ABR) and net-lease REIT Spirit Realty Capital (SRC), having recently closed its merger with Realty Income, were the notable laggards.
Power REIT (PW) was a significant gainer for the week.
Diversified posted the most losses this week among subsectors, followed by Residential and Health Care. Data centers and Office were the biggest gainers.
Here is a look at the subsector performance: