The International Women’s Day marked this March 8 led me to think what stocks would women be more inclined to invest in these days. Past researches and studies have indicated that women tend to adopt the stay-the-course stance in investing in contrast to the men who are more likely to play on the ups and downs of the market. This women’s tendency supports the follow-through observation that the less volatile shares in the market have better chances of landing in a lady investor’s stock portfolio.
Floating an REIT offering
In this compilation of the “Least Volatile Stocks,” women investors sure stand to have some merry picking particularly on the blue chips. But what about industrial real estate issues like a small-cap company like Terreno Realty Corporation (NYSE:TRNO), an REIT currently wooing Wall Street investors on its public offering of 5 million common shares at $16.60 per?
Terreno’s scope covers six major U.S. coastal markets: Los Angeles; San Francisco Bay Area; Northern New Jersey/New York City; Miami; Seattle; and Washington, D.C./Baltimore. Just this March, it acquired for $5.1 million property in Medley, Florida. It also bought in December 2012, an $8-million building in Tukwila, Washington, near the Sea-Tac International Airport
The company’s holdings include properties for warehousing/distribution, flex (including light industrial and R&D), and transshipment. What Terreno Realty Corporation (NYSE:TRNO) acquires are functional buildings located in infill areas, properties that are open to sharing among multiple tenants and catering to demand from its various submarkets. Significantly, Terreno’s portfolio of industrial real estate properties is entrenched in high barriers-to-entry markets.
A view from the logistics standpoint
Consistent growth prospects for Terreno Realty Corporation (NYSE:TRNO) appear strong, if a logistics-based analysis published this March by Area Development Online on the U.S. industrial real estate sector is to be the basis. The analysis identified six key factors driving a resurgence of this property sector. Among these growth drivers, it said, is healthy and stable demand coupled with “an increasingly constrained supply of high quality space.” It was estimated that the national vacancy level in industrial real estate properties has slid slowly to 9.1%, a rate last observed in 2009.
Stag Industrial is another industrial real estate concern that appears starting to benefit from these growth drivers. Its properties totaling 29.4 million square feet enjoy a 95.1% occupancy rate as of end-December last year. The company has 172 property holdings in warehouse/distribution, light manufacturing, and flex/office spread out in 31 states.
Stag has displayed superb management of its leases with no single tenant among its 156 leaseholders accounting for over 2.7% of its total annualized rent. As noteworthy, no single industry accounts for over 10% of the company’s annualized rent. Results from its recent quarter are as impressive with its $0.34 EPS surpassing analysts’ forecast of $0.29. Revenue for the period hit $27.4 million, well above the $23.85 consensus estimate.
Beachhead for coastal properties
A performance as robust as what DCT Industrial Trust Inc. (NYSE:DCT) seeks to build through its light industrial and bulk distribution properties located in the U.S. and Mexico. Its acquisition last year included two Class A industrial buildings with a total of 98,000 square feet in Houston and 32.6 acres at Chicago’s I-55 industrial submarket. DCT’s consolidated occupancy rate at 92.3% in the 2012 fourth quarter is as impressive as Stag’s level. DCT funds from operation for fiscal 2012 rose 5% year-over-year to $118.1 million.
Like Terreno, DCT Industrial Trust Inc. (NYSE:DCT) also has coastal properties that can reap benefits from the strong ripple effects which the Area Development analysis expects to come from the $5.2 billion expansion project of the Panama Canal and several major U.S port modernization initiatives such as those in the ports of Virginia and Jersey City. The U.S. developments taking place are geared toward preparing American ports to receive the next generation of large cargo ships. In turn, this will result in an escalation of demand for industrial property space around the receiving U.S. ports.
Three into the egg basket
So, will women investors be keen on adding any of these industrial real estate concerns in their egg baskets? Taken from a longer perspective and consistency in financial growth which women investors are wont to look for in their stock picks, Terreno Realty Corporation (NYSE:TRNO) appears to have made it to the home base. With a profit margin estimated at 13% in the current year, the company also posted a sales growth of about 65% to $31.2 million and EPS gain of 140%.
Coupled with the long-term growth potential cited in the above mentioned logistics analysis, the recent financials from Stag and DCT should likewise make these issues attractive to women investors. Stag’s 11% increase in its stock dividend declared this March to $1.20 from $1.08 per share stands as one additional encouragement. DCT Industrial Trust Inc. (NYSE:DCT), for its part, has an estimated 3.8% dividend yield and its assets under active development has grown to $128.2 million, thus bolstering further the shareholder value it stands to deliver moving deeper into 2013.
The article Are Industrial Properties Good Picks for Women? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Arturo Cuevas.
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