Healthcare Realty Trust Incorporated (NYSE:HR) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Todd Meredith : That really is an average. I think the one key piece of helpful information we put in our earnings release, and I think it’s worth a look, it’s Page 5 of the supplemental, is really looking at that seasonality on capital spend. And so clearly, we see a pattern year-to-year that fourth quarter is always high. So then you — if you look at the fourth quarter, your payout ratio might be high. But if you average it throughout the year, we tend to be a little lower in the first half, and it builds in the second half. That was true premerger, and we expect it to be true post-merger. And so you really have to look at the balance of the year, and so you can’t really extrapolate off a fourth quarter purely on a payout ratio. You really have to look at the full year, which is why we provide that additional disclosure.

Tayo Okusanya : Got you. And then one more if you would indulge me. You’re starting to get a lot more information from health care systems right now. Again, their bottom line is also under pressure. We are hearing about them, again, starting to consolidate MOBs, consolidate their regular admin space as they kind of try to improve the bottom line. Could, you just kind of talk a little about what you’re hearing from them as well? And what potential impact that could have on not just demand but even potentially ability to drive pricing going forward?

Todd Meredith : Sure. Yes. I think ’22 is a pretty challenging year for everybody saw the interest rate side of the world changed dramatically. But I think in health care, it was particularly challenging on the labor front, as we all know but I think if you look month over — monthly trends throughout ’22, there’s a dramatic difference in the first half to the second half. And by the end of the year, that was starting to be much improved, and I think that’s obviously a bright spot going into ’23 and with moderating COVID impacts as well as better labor costs. I think that’s a much better environment. I think like everyone, they’re grappling with the interest expense side of the world. So we’re seeing some easing there, just like we talked about earlier on inflation, which is really encouraging.

But I think the real takeaway is that there’s always rationalization going on by health systems of their space usage. But I think the overwhelming trend you’re seeing is a continued focus on how do we shift more to the outpatient setting, where it is lower cost, more effective. And I would say everything that we’re seeing on the leasing side, everything on the development side underscores that, that there’s just sort of a renewed energy to say that. That is really the picture of how we continue to drive our cost structure lower, our revenue models, our margins better. So I think really outpatient continues to be part of the solution. It doesn’t mean they’re not going to always be trying to rationalize where they put their care and get it optimized.

But I think we’re really poised to capture a lot of that incremental demand.

Operator: We now have John Pawlowski of Green Street.

John Pawlowski : I have a follow-up question on the occupancy upside and the multi-tenant square footage you guys outlined on Page 16. Could you just give us a sense when do you think you’ll be able to get 90%?

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