Should You Invest In One Liberty Properties, Inc. (NYSE:OLP)?
Want to participate in a research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and earn a $60 gift card!
One Liberty Properties, Inc. is a US$549m small-cap, real estate investment trust (REIT) based in Great Neck, United States. REITs own and operate income-generating property and adhere to a different set of regulations. This impacts how OLP’s business operates and also how we should analyse its stock. Below, I'll look at a few important metrics to keep in mind as part of your research on OLP.
View our latest analysis for One Liberty Properties
REIT investors should be familiar with the term Fund from Operations (FFO) – a REIT’s main source of cash flow from its day-to-day business activities. FFO is a higher quality measure of earnings because it takes out the impact of non-recurring sales and non-cash items such as depreciation. These items can distort the bottom line and not necessarily reflective of OLP’s daily operations. For OLP, its FFO of US$43m makes up 63% of its gross profit, which means the majority of its earnings are high-quality and recurring.
OLP's financial stability can be gauged by seeing how much its FFO generated each year can cover its total amount of debt. The higher the coverage, the less risky OLP is, broadly speaking, to have debt on its books. The metric I'll be using, FFO-to-debt, also estimates the time it will take for the company to repay its debt with its FFO. With a ratio of 9.5%, the credit rating agency Standard & Poor would consider this as aggressive risk. This would take OLP 10.53 years to pay off using just operating income, which is a long time, and risk increases with time. But realistically, companies have many levers to pull in order to pay back their debt, beyond operating income alone.
I also look at OLP's interest coverage ratio, which demonstrates how many times its earnings can cover its yearly interest expense. This is similar to the concept above, but looks at the upcoming obligations. The ratio is typically calculated using EBIT, but for a REIT stock, it's better to use FFO divided by net interest. With an interest coverage ratio of 2.26x, OLP is not generating an appropriate amount of cash from its borrowings. Typically, a ratio of greater than 3x is seen as safe.
I also use FFO to look at OLP's valuation relative to other REITs in United States by using the price-to-FFO metric. This is conceptually the same as the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, but as previously mentioned, FFO is more suitable. In OLP’s case its P/FFO is 12.88x, compared to the long-term industry average of 16.5x, meaning that it is undervalued.
Next Steps:
One Liberty Properties can bring diversification into your portfolio due to its unique REIT characteristics. Before you make a decision on the stock today, keep in mind I've only covered one metric in this article, the FFO, which is by no means comprehensive. I'd strongly recommend continuing your research on the following areas I believe are key fundamentals for OLP:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for OLP’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for OLP’s outlook.
Valuation: What is OLP worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether OLP is currently mispriced by the market.
Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
