What Makes Sun Communities (SUI) an Investment Bet?

Third Avenue Management, an investment management company based in New York City, released its “Third Avenue Real Estate Value Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the calendar year’s first quarter, the fund returned +2.81% (after fees) versus -1.11% (before fees) for the Fund’s most relevant benchmark, the FTSE EPRA NAREIT Developed Index. The Fund reported an annualized return of +8.68% (after fees) since its inception more than twenty-five years ago. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2024.

Third Avenue Real Estate Value Fund highlighted stocks like Sun Communities, Inc. (NYSE:SUI), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Sun Communities, Inc. (NYSE:SUI) is a fully integrated REIT. The one-month return of Sun Communities, Inc. (NYSE:SUI) was 1.45%, and its shares lost 8.25% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 27, 2024, Sun Communities, Inc. (NYSE:SUI) stock closed at $119.12 per share with a market capitalization of $15.659 billion.

Third Avenue Real Estate Value Fund stated the following regarding Sun Communities, Inc. (NYSE:SUI) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:

“Fund Management continues to find very compelling opportunities in niche residential platforms that seem quite durable in nature. Along these lines, the Fund added to its holdings in the common stock of Sun Communities, Inc. (NYSE:SUI) (“Sun Communities” or “Sun”) and Grainger plc (“Grainger”) during the quarter.

Sun Communities is a U.S.-based REIT that is the largest single owner of Manufactured Housing (“MH”) and Recreational Vehicle (“RV”) communities in North America. The company is also the single largest owner of coastal marinas in the U.S. through its wholly owned Safe Harbor subsidiary.

While Sun and Grainger operate in different jurisdictions, they share several key attributes. For instance, both companies are well-capitalized, and control hard-to-replicate platforms focused on affordable segments of the residential markets. In addition, these portfolios are concentrated in regions that have experienced significant population growth more recently. Further, each company has value-enhancing initiatives in place, including site conversions (Sun) and targeted development (Grainger). However, both companies seem to trade at discounted valuations relative to conservative estimates of Net-Asset Value (“NAV”) for temporary reasons.

In Sun’s case, it seems to have fallen out-of-favor alongside its expansion into international markets; however, the company has swiftly acted upon a “return to core” strategy with the potential to take further actions to streamline its portfolio and surface value (e.g., disposition of Park Holidays, positioning Safe Harbor for sector consolidation, et al). On the other hand, Grainger plans to convert to a REIT during 2025. Such a move will likely introduce a wider set of potential investors at an interesting time as the company’s profits are expected to reset in conjunction with the lease-up of its existing assets and pipeline. In the meantime, both Sun and Grainger are experiencing sector-leading fundamentals within their core portfolios, with same property revenues having increased by high single-digits on a year-over-year basis—with a near-equal increase in NAV over the same period, by Fund Management’s estimates.”

Sun Communities, Inc. (NYSE:SUI) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 34 hedge fund portfolios held Sun Communities, Inc. (NYSE:SUI) at the end of the first quarter which was 36 in the previous quarter. Sun Communities, Inc. (NYSE:SUI) delivered a core FFO per diluted share of $1.19 in the first quarter (See the details here). While we acknowledge the potential of Sun Communities, Inc. (NYSE:SUI) 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 timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

We discussed Sun Communities, Inc. (NYSE:SUI) in another article and shared the list of best residential real estate stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.