(RTTNews) - Real estate investment trust Public Storage, Inc. (PSA: News ) reported Thursday that funds from operations or FFO, for the third quarter surged from last year, helped by foreign currency exchange gains. The FFO per share for the quarter rose and came in significantly above analysts' expectations.

Public Storage has grown to become the world's largest owner and operator of self-storage facilities. In addition, Public Storage provides a full range of related products and services to more than one million customers. Public Storage manages a total of over 2,197 self-storage facilities located in 38 U.S. states and seven western European nations with about 137 million net rentable square feet, as of the end of the third quarter.

The Glendale, California-based operator of self-storage facilities reported FFO of $243.41 million or $1.44 per common share for the third quarter, higher than $182.66 million or $1.08 per common share in the year-ago quarter.

On average, 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $1.25 per share for the third quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The results for the latest quarter include a foreign exchange gain of $21.4 million, and a gain on disposition of $30.3 million related to an equity offering by PS Business Parks, Inc., while the year-ago quarter included a foreign exchange loss of $53.2 million. Excluding the items, FFO per share declined 5.1% to $1.30 from the comparable quarter's $1.37.

Net income allocable to common shareholders for the quarter rose to $173.49 million or $1.03 per common share from $71.46 million or $0.42 per common share in the year-ago quarter.
Total revenues for the quarter decreased 4.2% to $412.86 million from $431.17 million in the same quarter last year. Wall Street analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $405.12 million for the quarter.

Self-storage rental income for the third quarter declined to $378.21 million from $392.74 million in the prior-year quarter. Revenues for ancillary operations totaled $27.80 million, up from $26.95 million in the same quarter last year. Interest and other income declined to $6.86 million from $11.49 million in the year-ago quarter.

Revenues for the same-store facilities declined 4.6% to $352.12 million, due to a 4.2% reduction in realized rent per occupied square foot, combined with a 1.0% reduction in average occupancies. Same-store facilities represents 1,899 facilities with 117.5 million net rentable square feet that represents about 93% of the aggregate net rentable square feet of U.S. consolidated self-storage portfolio.

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