Veris Residential downgraded to In Line from Outperform at Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI downgraded Veris Residential (VRE) to In Line from Outperform with a price target of $18, down from $20. The company’s Q4 results were in-line but the bigger news was its acknowledgement that a full monetization event would be difficult in today’s capital markets environment, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm says that as a result, Veris is embarking on a more tactical asset sale program that includes parts of its land bank along with a few operating assets totaling $300M to $500M while simultaneously instituting a $100M buyback program. Evercore does not believe the shares will materially outperform peers given this delay in the full monetization process.