Tuesday, real estate investment trust Corporate Office Properties Trust, Inc. (OFC) reported a year-over-year rise in profit for the first quarter, boosted by strong revenue growth, despite significantly higher service operations expenses. Funds from Operations or FFO per share rose 20%, and Adjusted FFO surged 38%. The company also lowered earnings and FFO forecast for fiscal 2009.
The Columbia, Maryland-based reported net income available to common shareholders of $12.12 million or $0.23 per share for the first quarter, higher than $6.69 million or $0.14 per share in the prior-year quarter.
FFO available to common share and common unit holders for the quarter were $40.07 million, up from $31.30 million in the year-ago quarter, while FFO per share rose 20% to $0.67 from last year's $0.56.
Adjusted FFO available to common share and common unit holders increased 38% to $33.37 million from $24.22 million in the first quarter of 2008.
On average, three analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.15 per share for the first quarter.
Total revenues for the quarter increased to $181.73 million from $107.62 million in the same quarter last year. Wall Street analysts had consensus revenue estimate of $138.23 million. Revenues from real estate operations for the first rose to $106.8 million from $97.0 million in the prior-year quarter.
The company said that during the quarter 323,000 square feet was renewed, representing a renewal rate of 82%, at an average capital cost of $2.86 per square foot. While the total rent on renewed space increased 6% on a straight-line basis, it increased 1% on a cash basis. According to the company, for the renewed and re-tenanted space total straight-line rent increased 4% and total rent on a cash basis decreased 2%.
Operating income for the first quarter rose to $36.70 million from $31.74 million in the year-ago quarter. Total operating expenses was $145.04 million, sharply higher than $75.87 million in the prior-year quarter. Expenses include, service operations expenses of $73.32 million, significantly lower than $10.51 million in the comparable quarter a year ago.
On April 1, 2009 the Company was added to the S&P MidCap 400 Index, and issued an additional about 3.0 million common shares in public offering at a price of $24.35 per share for net proceeds after underwriting discounts but before offering expenses of $72.1 million. The net proceeds were used to pay down the Company's Revolving Credit Facility and for general corporate purposes.
Looking ahead, president and chief executive officer, Randall Griffin said, "The Company begins 2009 with a healthy capital position, low level of debt maturities and a development pipeline totally concentrated in the U.S. Government and Defense Information Technology sector, where we continue to see demand."
For fiscal 2009, the company lowered its earnings forecast to a range of $0.70 to $0.80 per share from the prior guidance in the range of $0.73 to $0.83 per share. The company also cut its FFO guidance to a range of $2.41 to $2.51 per share from the previously announced range of $2.48 to $2.58 per share. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $0.62 per share for fiscal 2009.
OFC closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $29.52, up $1.27 or 4.50% on a volume of 1.42 million shares, lower than the three month average volume of 1.82 million shares.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.