We recently published a list of UBS’ Top Quant Stocks In AI, IT, Healthcare & Other Sectors: Top 33 Stocks In All Sectors. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE:FRT) stands against other UBS’ top quant stocks in AI, IT, healthcare & other sectors.
With the third quarter of the 2024 earnings season underway, Wall Street is dealing with a changing stock market environment. The Federal Reserve has started its interest rate reduction cycle and market watchers are on the lookout for labor market and inflationary indicators to determine whether the Fed will be able to meet its goal of reducing interest rates by an additional 50 basis points by the end of this year.
Simultaneously, the shifting economic climate is also creating changes in the investment environment. High interest rates traditionally do not mean well for certain stock market sectors barring exceptional circumstances. Some sectors that don’t perform well in a high-rate environment include real estate, healthcare, and technology.
For two of these, this has been the case in the 2022 – 2024 Federal Reserve interest rate hiking cycle as well. Starting from real estate, the flagship S&P index’s real estate sector’s annualized three-year return is currently -2.66%. From its peak of 324.75 in December 2021, the index has lost 48.2 points or 14.8%. Similarly, the high-end healthcare and biotechnology sector does not fare well during high interest rates either. Since 2021’s close, the S&P’s pharmaceutical stock index is down by -0.84% while the S&P’s biotechnology index has lost a sizable 12.61%.
This brings us to our third stock market sector, a.k.a, technology. Technology, as you’re likely aware, has seen a lot of investor interest due to the surge in artificial intelligence. Looking at the performance of the S&P’s technology stock index, its performance also mirrors real estate and healthcare stocks before the frenzy around artificial intelligence started. Between 2021’s close and the market’s bottom in October 2022, the index had lost 33%. During the same time period, the real estate, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology stock indexes had lost 34.8%, 12.2%, and 30.5%, respectively. However, market optimism surrounding artificial intelligence has created a clear bifurcation in performance.
As an example, while real estate stocks have gained 29% since the October 2022 bottom and biotechnology stocks have added 25% in value, information technology stocks are up by a whopping 115%. This shows that tech stocks have delivered 4x the returns of both real estate and biotechnology. Driving this is artificial intelligence, with the shares of the world’s premier AI GPU designer up by 690% since OpenAI publicly released ChatGPT.
Looking at these shifts, the next question to ask is which stock market sectors might benefit from the evolving environment moving forward. On this front, investment bank UBS has some insights. In its Equity Compass Report issued in mid-October, the bank identifies key themes and trends for US and global stock markets. Within global and US stock market sectors, the bank has rated only one sector as ‘Most Attractive’. Unsurprisingly, this is the US technology sector which is currently experiencing a sustained surge of investor optimism courtesy of artificial intelligence.
The bank shares several data points to justify its optimism in the US technology sector, and more specifically, artificial intelligence companies. Citing data from the Hugging Face repository, a collection of software development tools, it reveals “an average 200% y/y rise for new AI models and model downloads combined so far in 2024.” UBS is also optimistic about the growing adoption of artificial intelligence in the US business world. AI adoption is key since big technology firms that have invested billions of dollars in AI need it to generate returns on their investment.
As per UBS, data from the Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook (BTOS) survey released in September 2024 shows that AI adoption across the 1.2 million firms tracked was picking up the pace. “In the survey, 5.9% of companies reported using AI as of 3Q24, up from 3.7% in 3Q23,” outlined the bank in its report. Not only did 5.9% of the firms adopt AI, but the survey’s outlook for the next six months revealed that AI adoption across the surveyed population could rise by 2.8 percentage points to sit at 8.7%. Commenting on the implications of the higher adoption, UBS stated that “increasing future adoption will increase visibility on AI monetization, which is consistent with recent comments from leading cloud platforms.” The firms slated to benefit the most from this monetization are those ” with strong footprints in existing customer bases,” believes the bank.
These statements necessitate asking the question of which industries are slated to benefit the most from AI adoption. Fortunately for us, UBS also shares data for the industries currently leading the way with AI adoption and those that could grow adoption in the future. Right now, the information technology and personal services sectors are leading with AI adoption since as of September 2024, their respective adoption percentages were 19.1% and 14.7%. For the next six months, while the same industries are expected to lead the pack in overall AI adoption through their 23% and 19.8% percentages, others are expected to make higher percentage point gains. Two industries that stand out in the report are educational services and the finance and insurance industries.
As per the report, the former is expected to increase its AI adoption by 5.6 percentage points to 18.7% over the next six months from the current value of 13.1%. For the finance and insurance sector, it is expected to mark a 6.2 percentage point jump to 13.4% from the existing AI adoption of 7.2%. Of course, while AI is by far the most popular sector in the market right now, UBS also shares other attractive areas. It outlines that the market “also offers exposure to secular growth in longevity through various US medical device companies. Many US companies are also playing leading roles in the energy transition via electric vehicles, renewables, and energy efficiency.”
Our Methodology
To make our list of UBS stocks with improving quantitative indicators, we chose the firm’s top stocks that are seeing improvements in EPS growth, P/E ratio, and other indicators. Stocks within each sector were ranked by the number of hedge funds that had bought the shares during Q2 2024. The sectors themselves were ranked by the cumulative number of funds invested in the firms.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points. (see more details here).
A wide-angle view of an urban skyline, representing the company’s investments in urban neighborhoods.
Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE:FRT)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors In Q2 2024: 24
Sector: Real Estate
Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE:FRT) is a Maryland-based real estate investment trust that invests in retail properties such as shopping centers. This means that the firm is heavily exposed to consumer spending trends, inflation, and economic health when compared to other REITs such as those that invest in residential real estate. Consequently, Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE:FRT)’s shares are up by a modest 5.70% year to date, and were it not for a 6% share price gain in July, the shares would be down 3.7% year to date. This indicates the extent to which the Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE:FRT)’s hypothesis depends on the consumer spending environment. Additionally, the firm also does well when inflation is low as the costs of maintaining its portfolio drop. Lower costs are another driver of Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE:FRT)’s hypothesis due to its sizable portfolio made of $10.2 billion of operating real estate at costs. Higher costs reduce the firm’s ability to pay dividends, which are a key primary attractive point of real estate stocks.
Here’s what Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE:FRT)’s management believes is in store for it for 2025:
“First, prior period rents from COVID-era deferral agreements will wind down to essentially zero in 2025 from $3 million in 2024. Second, as tenants are reluctant to give back space in the current environment, term fees should be light for a second consecutive year, essentially flat to 2024. Capitalized interest will fall to the mid-teens as we place more of our significant $850 million development pipeline into service over the year. And we expect our credit reserve to be more normalized for 2025, given the expectation of a moderating economy. Use our historical average of roughly 100 basis points as a placeholder for now. Although currently, we do not see any significant near-term risks in the watch list as of today. On the positive side of the ledger, as outlined previously in our remarks, occupancy growth should continue upwards, likely towards 95% over the course of the year.
Additionally, rent growth from sector-leading contractual bumps and strength in rollover should continue, as well as upside from recent acquisitions and contributions from the delivery of space in the redevelopment pipeline. All of these will more than offset any headwinds and fuel continued momentum in our bottom line FFO per share growth into 2025.”
Overall, FRT ranks 29th on our list of UBS’ top quant stocks in AI, IT, healthcare & other sectors. While we acknowledge the potential of FRT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than FRT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
