Earnings Preview: Liberty Property – Analyst Blog

Liberty Property Trust ( LRY ), a real estate investment trust (REIT), is scheduled to report its fiscal 2012 first quarter earnings on April 24, 2012. The current Zacks Consensus Estimate for the first quarter is pegged at 63 cents per share, representing a year-over-year decline of about 1.69%.

Fourth Quarter Recap

Liberty Property reported fourth quarter 2011 FFO (funds from operations) of 63 cents per share compared with 65 cents in the year-earlier quarter. Funds from operations, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income. Reported FFO were in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

For full-year 2011, Liberty Property reported FFO of $2.61 per share compared with $2.66 in the previous year

Total revenues for fourth quarter 2011 were $169.8 million compared with $164.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Total revenue in the reported quarter fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $175 million. Total revenues for fiscal 2011 were $667.6 million compared with $657.0 million in 2010.

Agreement of Analysts

Over the last 7 days, one analyst out of 12 increased the earnings estimate for the first quarter while none revised downward for the first quarter or fiscal 2012. In the last 30 days, one out of 12 analysts increased the earnings estimates for the first quarter and one out of 13 analysts increased the earnings estimates for fiscal 2012 while none revised it downward for first quarter as well as for fiscal 2012.

Magnitude of Estimate Revisions

Taking into effect the analysts' earnings revision, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the first quarter and fiscal 2012 remained constant over the last 7 days and 30 days at 63 cents and $2.54, respectively. However, Liberty Property expects FFO in the range of $2.45 - $2.60 per share in fiscal 2012.

Our Recommendation

Follow this link:
Earnings Preview: Liberty Property - Analyst Blog