Geoff Jervis
Analyst · Evercore. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Ben, and good morning everyone. Starting with acquisitions, during the quarter we acquired 18 properties for a purchase price of $108 million and a weighted average cap rate of 8.2%. Year-to-date we have acquired and are under contract for LOI to acquire $391 million of properties. We've probably stated that our goal is to grow our asset base 25% a year and our resultant 2015 acquisition target was $450 million. Our activities to-date potentially account for 87% of the target. While we've a target in order to help the Street model our business, internally, we rely on our risk assessment model to find value and our volume will ultimately be dictated by, in large part our models quantitative conclusions. We believe that the opportunity for STAG is large and attractive and the key to our success will be taking a long-term approach and remaining disciplined. In short, we're in no rush. On the disposition front, we sold two properties during the quarter for net proceeds of $9.2 million. These two properties were generally underperforming our expectations and represent a calling of the herd, so to speak. On the other end of the spectrum, we sold the property subsequent to quarter end in Michigan for a six cap rate, which compares very favorably to our cap rate at acquisition. We are constantly evaluating the portfolio for opportunities where the market is going to price an asset in excess of our internal assessment of value. All of the aforementioned dispositions represent such situations. Turning to our portfolio. At quarter end, we owned 281 buildings in 37 states with a total of 52 million square feet. Occupancy stands at 95.7% for the portfolio and our average lease term and rent are 4.1 years and $3.99 per square foot respectively. We continue to see robust activity in the leasing markets as evidenced by cash and GAAP rent growth of 1.6% and 5.2% respectively, another strong quarter. Going forward, we expect to continue to see similar rent growth in the portfolio. On the retention front, we achieved a 90.4% retention rate on the 2.1 million square feet rolling this quarter, representing the largest amount of quarterly expirations in the company's history. In total, over the last 12 months, our retention rate has been 73% and we expect retention for 2015 to be in the 70% range. Turning to the quarter's operations. Cash net operating income or cash NOI grew by 33.4% from the year ago period. Same-store cash NOI was down 0.4% quarter-over-quarter and up 0.6% year-to-date compared to 2014. We continue to expect to see modest same-store growth going forward due to our acquiring 100% occupied properties in a low-to-mid 90% occupied market. Core funds from operation or core FFO grew by 32% compared to 2014. On a per share basis, core FFO was $0.39 per share, up 8.3% compared to last year and the previous quarter. This is the highest core FFO per share in the company's history. As Ben mentioned, our five point plan is anticipated to lead to continued growth in the near, medium, and long-term. On the dividend front, the Board voted to increase the monthly dividend from $1.38 per share annualized rate to $1.39 per share annualized rate. Our current dividend represents an 86% AFFO payout ratio down from over 90% in previous quarters. Before we switch to the balance sheet, I want to spend a moment on G&A. G&A this quarter was $6.4 million, down 14% from last quarter as we moderated our expenses, primarily compensation. For the year, we expect G&A to be approximately $29 million, down from our previous forecast of $30 million. Looking to 2016, we expect G&A of approximately $32 million, down from our previous projection of $33 million. Turning to the balance sheet. As a result of our recent actions in the debt capital markets, we now have nearly $500 million of immediately available liquidity and expect to have $650 million in the near-term. While we have an abundance of liquidity, we remain committed to a low leverage balance sheet. The result of this is on a very strong credit metrics with debt to run rate EBITDA at five times at quarter end. We continue to strive for a defensive balance sheet and believe that we have achieved our goal to-date as evidenced by our ratings upgrade to BBB flat in May. Going forward, we anticipate continuing to run the company at a rate between roughly five and six times debt to run rate EBITDA. Looking at our liabilities, at year-end, we had approximately $860 million of debt outstanding, with a weighted average remaining term of 6.5 years, and a weighted average interest rate of 4.09%. All of our debt is either fixed rate or has been swapped to fixed rate with the exception of our revolver. On the equity front, other than a small ATM sale at the end of June that settled in July, we have not raised any equity and we require either continued improvement in our share price or extraordinary opportunity in order to change our posture on this front. In summary, it was a very good quarter for STAG. The company delivered operationally with an historic leasing quarter, continued to execute on accretive acquisitions and opportunistic dispositions, and demonstrated prudent capital management. Most important, we delivered core FFO growth of nearly 8% quarter-over-quarter. As we look forward, we are excited that we are building a best-in-class platform not only for the opportunities presented to us today, but also for the opportunities that we foresee in the future. And with that, I'll turn it back to Ben.