COPT Defense Properties reports Q2 FFO 64c, consensus 64c

Reports Q2 revenue $187.3M, consensus $183.7M. Stephen E. Budorick, CEO, commented, “Our Defense/IT investment strategy, which concentrates our portfolio near priority U.S. defense installations, continued to generate strong results during the second quarter, with FFO per share exceeding the midpoint of our guidance range. Based on this outperformance, and our forecast for the remainder of the year, we increased the midpoint of 2024 FFO per share guidance by $0.02 to $2.56, which implies nearly 6% year-over-year growth. This marks our second increase for the year and a total of $0.05 of outperformance compared to our initial guidance. The growth off the midpoint of our 2024 FFO per share guidance is one of the highest growth rates in the Nareit-defined Office REIT sector, and ranks in the 75th percentile for the entire REIT sector. We are exceeding our plan in several areas and raised 2024 guidance on a group of key metrics. We increased the midpoint of 2024 guidance for same property cash NOI growth by 150 basis points to 8%, increased same property year-end occupancy by 25 basis points to 93.75%, and increased tenant retention by 250 basis points to 82.5%. During the quarter, the year-over-year increase in same property cash NOI for our Total Portfolio was the highest level in over a decade, while the increase in our Defense/IT Portfolio was the highest level since we began reporting the segment. Taken together, our solid performance during the first half of 2024, coupled with our strong full year outlook, illustrates the strength of demand we are seeing in our portfolio for tenants serving priority defense missions. Looking forward, we continue to anticipate compound annual FFO per share growth of at least 4% between 2023 and 2026.”