Referenced Stocks: DRE, LRY

Liberty Property Trust ( LRY ) , a real estate investment trust (REIT), is scheduled to report second quarter 2012 earnings results on July 24. The current Zacks Consensus Estimate of 63 cents for the quarter represents a year-over-year decline of 3.22%.

First Quarter Recap

Liberty Property reported first quarter 2012 FFO (funds from operations) of 68 cents per share compared with 65 cents per share in the year-earlier quarter. Reported FFO beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by $0.05. Funds from operations, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, are obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income.

Total revenue for first quarter 2012 stood at $169.9 million compared with $166.1 million in the year-ago quarter. Total revenue in the reported quarter fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $173 million.

Agreement of Analysts

In the last 7 days, none of the analysts have revised their earningsestimate for 2012 and 2013. This signifies that the analysts are cautious about both the short- and long-term earnings prospect of the company.

Magnitude of Estimate Revisions

For full-year 2012, the company expects adjusted FFO in the range of $2.45 to $2.60 per share. The Zacks Consensus Estimates for 2012 have remained constant over the last 7 days at $2.59 per share, which is at the higher end of the company's guidance. For 2013, the Zacks Consensus Estimates have also remained flat over the last 7 days at $2.68 per share.

Our Recommendation

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Earnings Preview: Liberty Property - Analyst Blog