Topic: How To Invest

Hi, Pat: What is your view on Milestone Apartments REIT? Thanks in advance.

Article Excerpt

Milestone Apartments REIT, $15.04, symbol MST.UN on Toronto (Units outstanding: 60.4 million; Market cap: $899.5 million; www.milestonereit.com), owns 61 “garden-style” apartment properties containing 19,908 units in 14 cities throughout the U.S. Southeast and Southwest. The real estate investment trust continues to grow by acquisition. In the first nine months of 2015, it purchased buildings in Orlando, Atlanta, Kansas City, Charlotte and Dallas for a total of $156.1 million (all amounts except unit price and market cap in U.S. dollars). At the same time, it sold older properties for $64.7 million. The new buildings increased Milestone’s revenue by 17.2% in the three months ended September 30, 2015, to $56.2 million from $47.9 million a year earlier. Cash flow jumped 29.0%, to $15.2 million from $11.8 million. The trust issued new units to fund these purchases. That caused its per-unit cash flow to rise at a slower pace of 9.5%, to $0.23 from $0.21. As of September 30, 2015, Milestone’s occupancy rate was 95.3%,…