Kevin Habicht
Analyst · Janney Montgomery Scott. Please go ahead
Thanks Jay and let me start with my usual cautionary statement that we will make certain statements that may be considered to be forward-looking statements under federal security law. The company's actual future results may differ significantly from the matters discussed in these forward-looking statements, and we may not release revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect changes after the statements were made. Factors and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations are disclosed from time-to-time in greater detail in the company's filings with the SEC and in this morning's press release. With that, headlines from this morning's press release include announcing second quarter results of $0.64 per share of core FFO operating results which represent an 8.5% growth over second quarter 2016. These results coupled with early 2017 acquisitions success and a strong and liquid balance sheet positions us very well for another good year of accretive growth in 2017 and has allowed to increase 2017 guidance again this morning. We maintained our AFFO dividend payout ratio at 72.5% during the first half, which helped position us to announce a 4.4% increase in the common dividend a couple of weeks ago, putting 2018 on track to be the 28th consecutive year of annual dividend increases. Occupancy ticked up 20 basis points to 99.3% at June 30. We continue to drive additional operating efficiencies with G&A expense decreasing to 6.1% of revenues for the second quarter and 6.2% of revenues for the first half and that's down 80 basis points from the first half of 2016. For purposes of modeling 2017 results, the annual base rent for all leases in place as of June 30 was $573 million. As I mentioned, we increased our 2017 core FFO per share guidance by $0.02 per share to a new range of $2.46 to $2.50 per share, which represents 5.5% growth to the midpoint. Details of that guidance can be found on page six in today’s press release, which only has modest changes from prior guidance, including a $50 million increase in our acquisition guidance to 550 million to 650 million for 2017. As noted in those details, the core FFO guidance excludes the unusual charges for retirement severance and preferred stock redemption, both of which took place in the first half of 2017. During the second quarter of 2017, we issued $25.1 million of common equity via our ATM at an average price of $43 per share, which suggest this was executed very early in the second quarter. Equity raised year-to-date totaled $74 million and if you combine this with our projected 2017 retained AFFO of approximately $100 million after all dividend payments plus our 2017 disposition proceed guidance of $100 million, we will have raised 274 million of equity light capital this year and that's assuming we issue no additional equity in the second half. During the first half of 2017, the weighted average outstanding balance on our $650 million bank line was $69 million. So we've not been particularly heavy user of that short term variable rate capital, despite its attractive pricing, its capital market environments like recent months where we are glad to have preserved the optionality and liquidity the strong balance provides. Continuing our acquisition plan without the need for equity or using large amounts of bank line debt is consistent with disciplined balance sheet management. We remain very well positioned from a liquidity perspective and leverage position. Beyond the bank line, all of our debt is fixed rate debt and weighted average debt maturity is 6.3 years with a weighted average interest rate of 4.4%. Refinancing our next debt maturity, which is a $250 million, 6.875% notes due this October will allow us to improve upon these metrics and should be another accretive refinance opportunity. However, that will largely in order to the benefit of 2018 and beyond, given the timing later this year. But our balance sheet remains in great position to fund future acquisitions and to weather potential economic and capital market turmoil. Looking at June 30 leverage metrics, debt to gross book assets was 35.9%. As you know, we don't manage our balance sheet around market cap based leverage metrics. More importantly, debt to EBITDA was 4.8 times at June 30. Interest coverage was 4.7 times for the second quarter and fixed charge coverage was 3.6 times for the second quarter. Only five of our 2675 properties are encumbered by mortgages, totaling $14 million. Following 2016’s 6% growth in per share results, 2017 seems to be on track for a similar result. When sourcing capital and making capital allocation investment decisions, driving per share results on a multi-year base is at the forefront of our minds not volume nor size. We already have more than enough scale to produce a diversified portfolio and access to well priced capital. So growing per share result is job one. We're optimistic 2017 will be another year of solid growth in those per share operating results. Our strategy has been consistent for many years and we're optimistic we'll be able to perpetuate our 28 consecutive year track record of raising our dividend which is has been an important part of outperforming the REIT equity indices and general equity market indices for a long time. With that Matt, we will open it up to any question.