Lewis Parrish
Analyst · B. Riley Securities. Please proceed with your question
Alright, thank you, David and good morning, everyone. Again, briefly with our balance sheet. During the fourth quarter, our total assets increased by about $90 million due to new acquisitions. These were financed with a mix of debt and equity proceeds. From a financing perspective, since the beginning of the fourth quarter, we secured about $31 million of new long term borrowings at a weighted average rate of 3.4%, which is fixed for the next nine plus years. On the equity side, since the beginning of the fourth quarter, we've raised about $49 million of net proceeds through sales of our common stock under the ATM program, and about $35 million in net proceeds from sales of our Series C preferred stock. Moving on to our operating results. First, I’ll note, net income for the quarter was about $2 million and net loss to common shareholders of $1.4 million or $0.042 per common share. For the year, we had net income of about $3.5 million and a net loss to common shareholders of $8.7 million or $0.286 per common share. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, adjusted FFO for the fourth quarter was approximately $6.7 million compared to $5.3 million in the third quarter, an increase of about 28%. And AFFO per share was $0.199 in the fourth quarter versus $0.166 in the third quarter, an increase of 19%. Dividends declared per share were about $0.136 in the fourth quarter versus $0.135 in the third quarter. Annual basis adjusted FFO for 2021 was approximately $20.4 million compared to $14.3 million in 2020, an increase of 42%, and AFFO per share with $0.668 in 2021 versus $0.641 in 2020, an increase of 4%. The year-over-year increase in the per share figures were a bit muted due to an early lease termination fee received during the first quarter of 2020, which resulted in additional AFFO of about $0.10 per share last year. Dividends declared per share were $0.541 in 2021 and $0.537 in 2020. Our common dividend payout ratio was about 81% of AFFO in 2021 versus 84% in 2020. The primary driver behind the increases in AFFO was higher top line revenues, partially offset by increases in related party fees and additional borrowing costs. Fixed base cash rents increased by about $1.2 million or 7% on a quarter-over-quarter basis and by about $17.6 million or 35% on a year-over-year basis. These increases were primarily driven by additional revenues earned from recent acquisitions. And as David mentioned, during the fourth quarter, we recorded about $3.4 million of participation rents compared to $1.8 million in the previous quarter. And for the year that gave us participation rents of about $5.2 million versus $2.4 million last year. During 2021, we had 39 farms under leases that had an active participation rent component versus 19 farms during 2020. And we do have a few additional farms with a participation rent components that are scheduled to come online later in 2022. On a same-property basis and including participation rates, but excluding income from early lease terminations, our 2021 lease revenues increased by approximately $2.3 million, 4.5% over that of 2020. On the expense side, excluding reimbursable expenses and certain non-recurring or non-cash expenses, our core operating expenses increased by about $679,000 on a quarter-over-quarter basis and by about $3.6 million on a year-over-year basis. These increases were both primarily driven by higher related party fees. The base management fee paid to our advisor increased due to additional assets acquired during the year, while the increase in the incentive fee was driven by higher pre-incentive fee FFO achieved during each of the current periods. Removing related party fees, our core operating expenses decreased by about $256,000 on a quarter-over-quarter basis and increased by about $652,000 on a year-over-year basis. Decrease on a quarter-over-quarter basis was primarily due to less water costs incurred on one of our properties in Colorado, partially offset by additional legal fees incurred to protect water rights on certain farms in California. The increase on a year-over-year basis was primarily due to the additional water costs incurred on these Colorado and California properties, an increase in property tax expenses due to certain recent acquisitions and changes in certain lease structures. Just one last note on expenses. During 2021, we incurred approximately $572,000 of additional water costs related to the Colorado property. We do not expect these costs to continue into 2022. And additionally, we recorded about $282,000 of cost related to protecting our water rights on certain farms in California. We do currently expect these costs to continue at several -- at similar levels for the next few years. Moving on to net asset value, we had 24 farms and one cooling facility revalued during the quarter, all based on third-party appraisals. Overall, these farms increased in value by about $2.1 million over their previous valuations from about a year ago. So, as of December 31st, our portfolio was valued at about $1.5 billion and all of this was supported by either third-party appraisals or the actual purchase prices. Based on these updated valuations and including the fair value of our debt and all preferred stock, our net asset value per common share at December 31st was $14.31, which is up by $0.51 from last quarter. Turning to our capital makeup and overall liquidity. From an overall -- from a leverage standpoint and with respect to our borrowings, our loan-to-value ratio and our total farmland holdings on a fair value basis and net of cash was about 44% in December 31st. Over 99% of our borrowings are currently at fixed rates and on a weighted average basis, these rates are fixed at 3.36% for another six years. So, we believe we are currently well protected on the debt side against any future interest rate hikes. Regarding upcoming debt maturities, we currently have about $65 million coming due over the next 12 months. However, about $48 million of this represents various loan maturities and the properties collateralizing these loans have increased in value by about -- by a total of about $24 million since their respective acquisitions. So, we do not foresee any problems refinancing any of these loans if and when we choose to do so. Removing these maturities, we only have about $17 million of amortizing principal payments coming due over the next 12 months or about 3% of our total debt outstanding. From a liquidity standpoint, including availability, our lines of credit, and other undrawn notes, we currently have about $115 million of dry powder in addition to over $35 million of unpledged properties. We recently increased the size of our MetLife facility. This now gives us ample availability under each of our two largest borrowing facilities. And we also continue to reach out to new lenders for additional borrowings. Overall, credit continues to be readily available to us from multiple lenders. And finally, I'll touch on our common distributions. We recently raised our common dividend again to $0.0453 per share per month. Over the past 28 quarters, we raised our common dividend 25 times, resulting in an overall increase of 51% over this time. Since 2013, we've paid 108 consecutive monthly dividends to common shareholders is totaling $0.0552 per share in total distributions. And our goal is to continue to increase the dividend at regular intervals. When considering the relative stability and security of the underlying assets and the related cash flows, we continue to believe that this stock offers a compelling investment alternative, particularly in light of today's inflationary environment. And with that, I'll turn the program back over to David.