Michael Costa
Analyst · Bank of America. Your line is open
Thanks, Talya. For the third quarter of 2023, we recognized normalized FFO per share of $0.33 and normalized AFFO per share of $0.34, in line with our earnings reported for the second quarter of 2023 and consistent with the expected normalized FFO and normalized AFFO run rate of between $0.33 and $0.34 per share we have communicated over the last several quarters. In terms of absolute dollars, normalized AFFO increased $2.1 million sequentially, driven primarily by a $700,000 increase in NOI from our managed senior housing portfolio, a $600,000 increase in cash rental income and a $200,000 decrease in cash interest expense. Also as of September 30, 2023, our annualized cash NOI was $453.5 million and our SNF exposure represented 54.3% of our annualized cash NOI, down 140 basis points from the second quarter and down 570 basis points from a year ago. This annualized cash NOI reflects the impact of sales completed during the quarter as well as some of the realized upside from our managed senior housing portfolio, property transitions and behavioral conversions. Like last quarter, we have included a table on Page 14 of our supplement which illustrates the upside opportunity in our annualized cash NOI from the recovery in our managed senior housing portfolio as well as from the stabilization of our previously disclosed property transitions and behavioral conversions. This table has been updated to reflect the impact of sales completed during the quarter, which accounted for the majority of the change in our expected NOI from last quarter, with the remaining difference due to quarter-to-quarter NOI in our cash basis tenant pool. Now turning to the balance sheet, which continues to be a source of strength, especially in the current lending environment. Our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio was 5.57x as of September 30, 2023, and is down 0.04x from the end of the second quarter as a result of improved performance in our triple net and managed portfolios as well as from the impact of asset sales completed during the quarter. We expect leverage to naturally decrease as we realize the upside opportunities in our portfolio that we have outlined in our supplement. We remain committed to a long-term average leverage target of 5x. And because of the embedded upside in our portfolio together with proceeds from any potential future disposition activity, we are confident we can achieve that target over time without needing to access the capital markets. Our opportunistic long-term debt issuances and proactive hedging together with having a well-laddered maturity schedule and no material maturities until 2026 result in a predominantly fixed rate balance sheet that provides us with significant cost certainty for the foreseeable future. Excluding our revolving credit facility, which makes up just 1.4% of our total consolidated debt, we have no floating rate exposure and our cost of permanent debt is 3.95% as of September 30, 2023. Additionally, through our hedging activities, we are currently saving over $16 million per year in interest expense, which provides a solid foundation to realize earnings growth in future periods. As of September 30, 2023, we were in compliance with all of our debt covenants and have ample liquidity of $1 billion, consisting of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents of $33 million and available borrowings of $967 million under our revolving credit facility. Finally, on November 6, 2023, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.30 per share of common stock. The dividend will be paid on November 30, 2023, to common stockholders of record as of the close of business on November 17, 2023. The dividend represents a payout of 88% of our normalized AFFO per share. And with that, we will open up the lines for Q&A.