Business

UDR (UDR) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

UDR (UDR) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Management raised full-year FFOA per share guidance for the second time in 2025, reflecting continued operating outperformance and improved liquidity. UDR (UDR +0.00%) executed a data-driven acquisition strategy, including a pending $147 million Northern Virginia asset purchase targeted for margin expansion, with closing expected in the fiscal fourth quarter ending December 31, 2025, and increased both acquisition and disposition guidance midpoints by $150 million for full-year 2025. Corporate actions included substantial preferred equity deployment at high returns, a $35 million share repurchase in the fiscal third quarter ended September 30, 2025 at a significant NAV discount, and a two-year term loan maturity extension with a swap to fix interest on half the balance. While East and West Coast properties delivered robust growth, Sunbelt markets underperformed due to supply and economic headwinds, prompting management to shift lease expirations and manage occupancy proactively. Strategic use of proprietary analytics and operational initiatives, such as the customer experience program, yielded lower turnover and robust other income growth in the fiscal third quarter ended September 30, 2025, underpinning UDR’s tactical approach in a decelerating rent growth environment.

Thomas W. Toomey: Thank you, Trent, and welcome to UDR's third quarter 2025 conference call. Presenting on the call with me today are Chief Operating Officer, Mike Lacey, and Chief Financial Officer, Dave Bragg. Senior officers Andrew Kanter and Chris Van Anz will also be available during the Q&A portion of the call. A number of fundamental drivers of our business have been supportive of growth for much of 2025. Coupling this with our core operating advantages resulted in attractive same-store revenue, expense, and NOI growth and enabled us to raise our full-year FFOA per share guidance for the second time this year.

As we start the fourth quarter, and as has been widely reported by various third-party publications, the apartment industry has experienced a broad deceleration in rent growth. Most of our markets face some combination of employment uncertainty, slower household formation, lower consumer confidence, and high levels of recently completed supply. Collectively, these factors have contributed to rent growth that has been more measured than what we anticipated as recently as forty-five days ago. Even with this backdrop, we are encouraged by various indicators that suggest our residents are resilient and appreciative of the value of renting at UDR. From a long-term perspective, the United States remains structurally under-housed.

Affordability of renting an apartment relative to home ownership is nearly at an all-time level of favorability. And the pipeline for future supply has materially decreased. UDR is cycle-tested, having delivered more than 10% average annual total shareholder return over the past twenty-five years. We will continue to focus on the items that are in our control to manage through times of uncertainties, make opportunistic and accretive investments, and deliver value to our shareholders. Looking towards UDR's next twenty-five years, I'm excited about our process that harnesses data, measures outcomes, creates actions, and drives cash flow growth. Points to make around that.

Our operating teams have executed a wide range of operating innovations for years, with our latest example being our customer experience project. We continue to uncover actionable insight through the millions of daily touchpoints with existing and prospective residents that enable our teams to measure, map, and orchestrate a superior UDR living experience. This influences our operating tactics from the market level all the way down to the individual apartment home. This approach has led to industry-leading improvements in resident retention, which enhances top-line revenue, mitigates expense growth, and drives margin expansion. Elsewhere, our approach to capital allocation is increasingly data-driven and collaborative.

Our sophisticated tools allow us to screen investment attractiveness at the asset level across more than 7,000,000 apartment homes nationwide. We have recently executed on the insight from this platform and our teammates to identify an acquisition that holds both an attractive rent growth profile and comes with operational upside to drive yield expansion. In addition to better informing our buy and sell decisions, we are leveraging our proprietary analytics platform and the wisdom of our teams to influence our NOI-enhancing and redevelopment capital expenditures, which we expect will further enhance growth in the future. Collectively, we are enthused about the innovation we continue to deploy that drives resident, associate, and shareholder value.

The initiatives and the platforms we have built align with our long-term strategy, enhancing capital allocation decisions and driving cash flow accretion. When coupled with our investment-grade balance sheet and substantial liquidity, we have positioned ourselves to achieve attractive results for years to come. Moving on, we continue to build on our position as a recognized leader in corporate stewardship. With the release of our seventh annual corporate responsibility report two weeks ago, we detailed the efforts that enabled UDR to become a more sustainable and resilient company. One that has been recognized as a top workplace winner in the real estate industry for the second consecutive year.

Our achievements reflect the engaging employee experience we have built, solidify our stature as an employer of choice, and deepen our rich history as a leader in corporate stewardship. I'm proud of all we have accomplished, and I look forward to sharing more success in the years to come. Finally, I and the other members of the board of directors are excited to welcome Rick Clark to UDR as our newest board member. Rick joined us earlier this month, and his appointment is the latest move in the board's refreshment process that also included the departure of two long-tenured directors earlier this year.

Rick brings a wealth of real estate investment and capital markets experience, having served Brook in various senior leadership roles over the course of nearly four decades. And we look forward to embracing his perspective as we advance our strategic initiatives. In summary, UDR has an established history of innovation, a demonstrated track record of delivering attractive shareholder returns, and a collaborative team with a deep bench to execute our strategy. I remain optimistic about the prospects of the apartment industry given favorable long-term fundamentals. And UDR will continue to harness data in an effort to make decisions that drive cash flow, enhance our value proposition, and stature within the industry. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mike.