10 More REITs Receive Price Target Hikes This Week

Over the last three months, there's been a stunning increase in the number of real estate investment trusts (REITs) receiving analyst price target increases. This is important because analysts' views carry significant weight with investors, so price target hikes often catalyze share price increases. A price target increase on a particular stock by one analyst may also lead to other analysts raising their forecasts.

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It's common for an analyst to raise price targets on several stocks from the same subsector. This week, one Evercore ISI Group analyst lifted price targets on several self-storage REITs, and overall, there were 10 new price target increases by five different analysts while maintaining previous positions on all but one. Take a look:

REIT NAME	SYMBOL	BROKERAGE	ANALYST	ACTION	OLD PRICE	NEW PRICE
Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc	ARE	Evercore ISI Group	Steve Sakwa	Maintains Outperform	$132	$133
American Tower Corp	AMT	Wells Fargo	Eric Luebchow	Maintains Overweight	$200	$225
CubeSmart	CUBE	Evercore ISI Group	Steve Sakwa	Maintains In-Line	$44	$45
Extra Space Storage Inc	EXR	Evercore ISI Group	Steve Sakwa	Maintains In-Line	$140	$151
Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc	GLPI ***	RBC Capital	Brad Heffern	Maintains Outperform	$47	$52
National Storage Affiliates Trust	NSA	Evercore ISI Group	Steve Sakwa	Maintains Underperform	$36	$40
Public Storage	PSA	Evercore ISI Group	Steve Sakwa	Maintains In-Line	$289	$300
SL Green Realty Corp	SLG	Barclays	Anthony Powell	Maintains Equal-Weight	$48	$49
UDR Inc	UDR	BMO Capital	John Kim	Upgrades from Market Perform to Outperform***	$39	$45
Welltower Inc	WELL	Evercore ISI Group	Steve Sakwa	Maintains In-Line	$95	$97

*** Gaming and Leisure Properties trades on the Nasdaq. All others are on the NYSE.

Several other analysts have also covered these REITs recently:

Gaming and Leisure Properties

On July 15, JMP Securities analyst Mitch Germain reiterated Gaming and Leisure Properties with a Market Outperform and maintained a $53 price target. On June 21, Morgan Stanley analyst Ronald Kamdem maintained Gaming and Leisure at Overweight and a $53 price target.

American Tower

Goldman Sachs analyst James Schneider initiated coverage on American Tower on July 1 with a Buy rating and announced a price target of $230. 

Extra Space Storage

On June 7, Citigroup analyst Smedes Rose maintained Extra Space Storage at Neutral and lowered the price target from $168 to $160. 

SL Green Realty

On July 9, Scotiabank analyst Nicholas Yulico upgraded SL Green Realty from Sector Underperform to Sector Perform and raised the price target by 23.2%, from $43 to $53. On July 1, Evercore ISI Group analyst Steve Sakwa maintained SL Green at Underperform but raised the price target from $47 to $49. Shares of SL Green have performed well recently, following a report by Goldman Sachs analyst Caitlin Burrows that the worst may be over for commercial real estate and that leasing activity in New York City is slowly improving.

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UDR

On June 24, Truist Securities analyst Michael Lewis maintained UDR with a Buy rating and raised the price target from $42 to $44. One week earlier, JP Morgan analyst Anthony Paolone maintained UDR at Overweight and raised the price target from $42 to $43. 

Welltower

On July 11, Morgan Stanley analyst Ronald Kamdem maintained Welltower at Overweight and raised the price target from $103 to $107.50. 

 Analysts have raised price targets on many REITs in anticipation of the FED lowering interest rates in September. Last week, the June Consumer Price Index (CPI) of -0.1% was lower than expected, leading to renewed optimism that the FED will act soon. In addition, FED chairman Jerome Powell noted the danger of keeping interest rates high for too long.

Lower interest rates help REITs finance new properties and refinance existing ones more inexpensively. Rising interest rates have led to a decline in share price for many REITs over the past two and a half years.

Investors should remember that analysts are only correct about 50% of the time and that these forecasts are for 12-18 months. However, price target increases are still significant for beneficial effects on share prices. Potential risks such as economic downturns or sector-specific challenges should also be considered.

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