John Kite
Analyst · Alex Goldfarb with Sandler O'Neill
Sure. First of all, as you said, to be specific on the $7 million, Alex, that is not just in one property, Livingston. That's spread out amongst the properties in terms of the below-market rents. But in terms of how we look at it, this was a process. And when we sold the $320 million of properties in both – which was spread out over two quarters, so fourth quarter of last year and first quarter of this year -- our equity value is moving around during that period of time. So when you look at -- we looked at this from the standpoint that we really felt strong that we wanted to improve the overall quality of our portfolio, and we wanted to avoid any kind of tax problem in terms of that, which is why we pursued a 1031. And as you said, you mentioned the dividend, but we've actually increased the dividend in the last year and a half by about 13.5%, 14%. So we have paid out substantial dividend increases to the shareholders that way. But clearly, as we sit here in this very moment in time, we would struggle with executing on these acquisitions today based on purely just looking at cost of capital at this very point in time, which is why we mentioned anything we would do after this current deal we are working on would be more on a match-funded basis where we would most likely sell lower-tier assets to buy something we thought had a better growth profile. Secondly, or thirdly, on top of that, when you look at the quality of the assets that we have acquired – now, I can't control how the stock might move in any one quick direction and the volatility in our stock that it might be in one week or two, but when you look at the assets we sold in markets like Hot Springs, Arkansas, and we turned around and Hot Springs, Athens, Alabama, Jacksonville, North Carolina, as an example, assets we sold, and bought in the New York metro area, in Oklahoma City, in the best part of Oklahoma City, and Dallas and Colleyville, which is just west of the airport, just south of Southlake. These are – and by the way, we acquired Summerland in Las Vegas at the end of last year. These are outstanding assets that we think, sure, the near term, we've got work to do to improve them, but it was part of the overall strategy. It wasn't just merely looking at that one particular component of it. So, I understand your question. I get it, and we certainly talk about it a lot and we understand where we are right now. And we think that if we keep doing what we are doing, investors will kind of see that and hopefully react to it, and we won't have to have that conversation.