CTO Realty Growth, Inc. (CTO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you. Thank you.

Hello and welcome to the CTO Reality Growth Q2 2026 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Jenna McKinney, Director of Finance. Please go ahead.

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us today for the CTO Realty Grove second quarter 2026 operating results conference call. Participating on the call this morning are John Albright, President and Chief Executive Officer, Phillip Mays, Chief Financial Officer and other members of the executive team that will be available to answer questions during I would like to remind everyone that many of our comments today are considered forward looking statements under federal securities laws. The company's actual future results may differ significantly from the matters discussed in these forward-looking statements, and we undertake no duty to update these statements. Factors and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations are discussed from time to time in greater detail in the company's Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and other SEC filings. You can find our SEC reports, earnings release, supplemental, and most recent investor presentation on our website at ctoreet.com.

With that, I will turn the call over to John. Thanks, Jenna, and good morning, everyone. Our strategy of owning and operating high-quality shopping centers in high-growth markets, complemented by our structured investments, continues to produce results across all areas of our business. For the quarter, we again delivered strong results driven by robust same property NOI growth, healthy leasing, and $153 million of investments that awaited average initial yield of 10.2%. Starting with leasing, during the quarter we executed 25 new leases, renewals, and extensions, totaling 213,000 square feet, including 184,000 square feet of comparable leases at a positive cash rent spread of 6%. Year-to-date, we have now completed 366,000 square feet of leasing, including 330,000 square feet of comparable leases at a cash rent spread of 10%. Leases signed during the quarter include Cooper's Hawk and Out Parcel Development at Ashley Park and Party Barn Kids at Millennia Crossing, which is in front of the Mall of Millennia in Orlando. Reflecting this leasing momentum, at quarter end, our total portfolio was 95.4% leased, up 150 basis points from a year ago. The current spread between leased and occupied rates is 400 basis points, and our signed not open pipeline is 6.3 million, representing approximately 5.8% of in-place annual cash base rent. We believe this provides a meaningful and visible earnings tailwind, as these tenants are expected to take possession and commence paying rent through the balance of 2026 and into 2027. One final leafy note, the Cheesecake Factory recently opened its nearly 7,000 square feet of restaurant space at the collection at Foresight in Georgia on July 21st. The opening was highly successful, and the shopping center continues to strengthen its position as a vibrant focal point in Atlanta's most affluent, In addition, demand for the center's 10-acre out parcel remains strong and we are in active lease negotiations with an anchor tenant to take possession. Also, reflecting the strength of our operating performance, same property NOI for our shopping centers increased 10.1% for the quarter compared to the prior year period. This growth continues to be driven by leasing activity across our portfolio, including the anchor backfills that have commenced paying rent. Phil will provide additional details on same property NOI shortly. Moving to investment activity, during the quarter we fired Gallery on the Parkway, 152,000 square foot open air retail power center in Dallas, Texas for $53.3 million. The center is fully occupied and anchored by d***'s House of Sports, Nordstrom Rack, Cost Plus World Market, and Portillo's. Located on 12 acres along the Dallas North Tollway with over 121,000 vehicles passing daily, this property serves a dense trade area with a population of approximately 368,000 residents within a five-mile radius. It is also just two miles from the proposed site of the Dallas Mavericks New Arena Entertainment District. On a year-to-date basis, we have now completed $234.2 million of investments at a weighted average yield of 9.5%. On the recycling front, during the quarter we completed $90.7 million of property dispositions at a weighted average exit cap rate of 6.7 percent. These sales included Mass & Yards, 163,000 square foot shopping center in Atlanta, Georgia, and Granada Plaza, 74,000 square foot shopping center in Tampa, Florida. These dispositions allow us to continue recycling capital out of low cap rates, stabilized assets, and into higher yielding investment opportunities. Further, the State of New Mexico is expected to take possession of approximately 98,000 square feet at our Albuquerque, New Mexico office property this fall, bringing the property back to full occupancy. Accordingly, we are now preparing to take this property to market. This will represent our last non-core asset to the State. In addition, we are under contract to sell, subject to customary closing conditions, a 76,500 square foot portion of Carolina Pavilion in Charlotte, North Carolina to a national retailer. This square footage consists of two adjacent vacant anchor boxes. normally leased to Value City Furniture and Joann Fabrics. Assuming this sale closes, we will have resolved all but one of the vacant anchor boxes we have been discussing on prior calls. Based on the eight completed anchored leases and current lease negotiations for the one remaining vacant box, we positive lease spread of approximately 75% for these nine anchor spaces combined. Notably, beyond the favorable earnings impact driven by these new anchors, we believe that they will also drive more foot traffic and create vibrancy to our shopping centers. Turning to our structured investment platform, which continues to be an attractive complement to our investment strategy. During the quarter, we originated two preferred equity investments totaling $96.4 million. The first was a previously announced $75 million preferred equity investment in a Class A Premier Retail Property located in the Southwest, which generates a 12% initial cash yield and has a two-year term. with a $21.4 million preferred equity investment in a grocery-anchored development located in the Northeast, which generates a 12% initial yield, including 3% accrued paid-in-kind interest, and has an 18-month term. After the quarter end, we originated a $37 million first mortgage investment secured by a leasehold interest in a mixed-use property located in Austin, Texas, of which $29.8 million was funded at closing. This investment generates a nine and three quarters initial cash yield and has a two-year term. Including this investment... Our pro forma structured investment portfolio stands at approximately $222 million, or approximately 15% of undepreciated assets, which is our target. The pro forma structured investment portfolio generates a weighted average yield of approximately 11.5%. Just a brief update on our six identified and out parcel opportunities. As previously discussed, last quarter we signed a lease with Swig for a drive-through customized beverage store at Marketplace at Seminole Town Center located in the Orlando Market. In this quarter, we signed a lease with Cooper's Hawk at Ashley Park located in Atlanta. and a market. We remain active in lease negotiations for the remaining pour-out parcels, which are located at Beaver Creek, West Broad Village, Plaza at Rockwall, and Collection at Foresight. continue to expect these six out parcels combined to generate a low double-digit unlevered yield on approximately $30 million of investment, with capital being deployed over late 2026 and into 2027, and beginning to contribute to earnings in 2027, with the full benefit expected to be recognized in 2028. We look forward to providing updates related to this initiative as additional leasing is completed. Looking forward, we have built a robust pipeline of acquisition opportunities and are actively underwriting shopping centers that align with our growth strategy. We expect to close at least one additional acquisition before year end, further strengthening our portfolio. Together with our year-to-date activity, this leads us to raise our investment volume guidance by over $100 million to a new range of $300 million to $400 million. In summary, we are very pleased with our performance through the first half of 2026, and we remain excited about the embedded growth drivers across our portfolio, including our below-market in-place rents, our signed-not-open pipeline, our out-parcel development opportunities, and our disciplined capital recycling. We believe these initiatives position the company to deliver meaningful earnings growth for years to come.

With that, I will hand the call over to Phil. Thanks, John. On this call, I will briefly highlight our quarter results, provide an update on our same property NOI growth and balance sheet, and discuss our updated 2026 outlook. For the second quarter, core FFO was $18.4 million, a $3.8 million increase compared to $14.7 million reported in the comparable quarter of the prior year. On a per diluted share basis, core FFO was 53 cents per share versus 45 cents per share, an increase of nearly 18% ASFO was $19.1 million for the quarter, an increase of $3.9 million compared to $15.3 million reported in the comparable quarter of the prior year. on a prediluted share basis was 55 cents per share versus 47 cents per share. The growth in both core FFO and AFFO was primarily driven by leases executed over the past year that have commenced paying rent along with earnings contributions from our recent acquisitions and structured investments. Regarding same property NOI, as John mentioned, same property NOI for our shopping centers increased 10.1% in the quarter compared to the prior year period. year-to-date basis, shopping centers' same property NOI increased 8.2% or 7%, excluding certain non-recurring recovery benefits recorded during the first quarter of the year. Total same property in Hawaii, including our few non-core properties, increased 6.7% for the second quarter and 4.5% for the six months into June 30th. This year-to-date growth, including non-core properties, was impacted by one tenant vacating 98,000 square feet of the 212,000 square feet at our Albuquerque, New Mexico property at the beginning of December in 2025. This is a great opportunity to see the growth of the property. As John discussed earlier, the space has been fully leased to the State of New Mexico, which is expected to commence paying rent in late 2026. Strong-same property and wide growth for our shopping centers in the first half of the year was driven by new anchor tenant openings, including One Life Fitness at Beaver Creek, Barnes & Noble at the Plaza at Rockwall, and the Pickler Pickleball Facility at the Collection at Foresight, all of which opened in late 2025 and are now contributing to cash rent against a price of $1,000. your period that excluded them. As we move into the back half of the year, the tenants along with certain anchor backfields that took possession and began paying cash rent late in 2025 will begin to roll into the prior year comparable periods. In addition, the third quarter of 2025 had unusually low bad debt expense accordingly, While we still expect healthy same-store growth going forward, we expect it to moderate from the beginning of the year pace. Moving to the balance sheet, at June 30th, we had total debt of $660.8 million, consisting of $643 million of unsecured borrowings and $17.8 million mortgage note payable, with a weighted average interest rate of 4.6%. At the quarter, the total liquidity of $131.8 million, consisting of $107 million of undrawn commitments under our revolving credit facility and $24.8 million of cash on hand. Our only remaining debt maturity in 2026 is the $17.8 million mortgage note payable, which matures in August and carries an interest rate of 4.06%. At maturity, we intend to repay this mortgage using our revolving credit facility. During the quarter, we issued approximately 4.2 million common shares under our common stock ATM program at a weighted average gross price of $20.29 per share for total net proceeds of $83.6 million. For the six months ended June 30th, we issued approximately 4.9 million common shares at a weighted average gross price of $20.18 per share for total net proceeds of $97.8 million. These proceeds, together with our disposition and structured investment repayment activity, funded our investment volume while allowing us to reduce leverage. As a result, we ended the quarter with net debt to pro forma adjusted EBITDA of 5.8 times, a decrease of 0.6 times from the end of the first quarter. We expect to continue to delever as our sign-out open pipeline commences paying rent, although leverage can vary quarter by quarter depending on investment and disposition activity and how we do it. it is funded. Regarding our investment and management of Alpine Income Property Trust, income from Pine for the quarter was $2.1 million, consisting of $1.4 million in management fees and $.7 million in dividend income. Reflecting Pine's recent earnings and dividend growth, our new annualized run rate is $8.9 million, consisting of $8.9 million in dividend income $5.7 million in management fees and $3.2 million in dividend income, representing a $.4 million increase from the annualized second quarter results. One unusual item that I would like to note, income tax expense was elevated at $1.1 million. Of this amount, approximately $800,000 is related to deferred taxes on unrealized gains on securities such as Pine, held in our taxable REIT subsidiary or TRS, and does not affect our non-GAAP measures. Because such unrealized gains are excluded net of income taxes. Accordingly, only approximately $300,000 of income tax expense impacted our non-GAAP measures this quarter. Now turning to guidance, reflecting our strong first half results and our completed and pending investment activity, we are raising our full year 2026 outlook. We are increasing core FFO guidance to a new range of $2.09 to $2.13 per diluted share, up from our prior range of $2.06 to $2.11. And we are increasing our AFFO guidance to a new range of $2.21 to $2.25 per diluted share, up from our prior range of $2.19 to $2.24. At the midpoint, our revised core FFO guidance represents approximately 13% growth compared to actual results for 2025. Key assumptions reflected in our revised guidance include investment volume, including commercial loans and structured investments of $300 million to $400 million, up from our prior range of $175 million to $250 million, same property NOI growth for shopping centers of 5% to 6% up from our prior range of 3.5% to 4.5%, and general and administrative expenses of $20 million to $20.2 million. And with that, operator, please open the line for questions.

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you'll need to press star 1 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Matthew Airdner from Jones. Your line is now open.

Hey, good morning guys. Thanks for taking the question. I'd like to touch on the sign not open pipeline. So, kind of the recognition of that across 2027, is that going to be kind of balanced throughout the year? Is it more loaded into kind of the first or second half?.

Yes, hey Matt, it's Phil. Over at 27, it'll be pretty even. Going for the remainder of this year, there's probably four or five 400,000 or so that picked up in the third quarter, then that probably doubled to about 800,000 or so in the fourth quarter. And then it's pretty, then everything is almost online. over 90 percent online after that and it's pretty evenly going forward. a million, three million, four quarter going forward. And that's just base rent. Okay.

Got it. That's helpful. And then kind of looking ahead to 27, 28, you have 27% of the ABR kind of rolling over. Have you had any preliminary discussions there? And then I guess what opportunity do you think that provides you guys on top of the current situation?.

sign out some pipeline and then the out parcel development. Yes. So in a particular order, we have a very robust lease negotiations and LOI stages and discussions with almost all of the rest of the vacancy. So if all that kind of comes through, you're going to be high 98% sort of level. But on the, basically the, Tenants that are expiring, they're really the one hole we'll have that's kind of meaningful would be in West Broad where we're having a tenant downsize. But everything else is pretty, I think we mentioned before that our theater in Phoenix, we're working on a tenant to take over that box. So that will be good. But we really don't have any issues that have any concern. We have good renewals and a lot of interest for the boxes.

Yes, and you'll see even start our next quarter that 27 explorations come down. I think we've already had a couple people getting close to 100,000 square feet already renewed. So you'll start to see those just kind of come down as we get closer to year end as is typical.

Perfect. Awesome. Thank you, guys. Thanks. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Craig Kuchera from Lucid Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Hey, good morning. John, you sold out of Atlanta this quarter. Was that more of a portfolio decision to reduce exposure there or AMC, or did you just think the asset had reached full value since I think it was about 99% occupied?.

Yes, a little bit of all of the above. Obviously Atlanta was our largest market, so lighten up that market probably was prudent. But AMC sort of was something that investors and analysts brought up quite a bit. So knocking out an AMC AMC was good. And obviously the cap rate was low where we can recycle into an accretive acquisition like the one we did in Dallas on the Dallas North Tollway.

Got it. And I'd like to talk about that transaction, which appears to be a little different than your typical acquisition. I think it's about 100% occupied, but it sounds like in a great location. Is there any value add opportunity there? Maybe out parcel development or below market rents, or I guess kind of what's the, or was it just a high cap rate and a very attractive market?.

Yes, you're right, Craig. You answered it for me that, you know, it was a very attractive location. right by north of the Galleria Mall, but close to where the Dallas Mavericks are going to build their arena. And basically the cap rate was higher than you would normally think for stabilized assets. And d***'s had just taken over and opened a new box, and Portillo's had just opened. And the ability to sell off a pad site if we wanted to, for instance, the Portillo's would make it even more accretive on the cap rate. We don't intend to, but that's a potential kind of value enhancing opportunity we have.

Okay, great. Changing gears, Phil, you had some interest rate swaps expiring over at Pine. Can you give us some color on your thoughts on the January 2027 expirations? Are you expecting to swap them again, or kind of your thoughts there?.

Yes, I mean, we will keep all of our term loans swapped. I believe there is a roll up in rate on the 27. don't want to call right off the top of my head what it's probably going to run, but that will run up closer to like a market rate. Most of our term loans, if we were to do new swaps now, Craig, would be around 5%. thinking about new term loans going forward that's probably a decent rate to model.

Okay, that's useful. Just one more for me, John. I think the Whole Foods loan you did was the first investment you made outside of the South.

Was that more of a one-off or do you think CTO might grow and deploy more capital maybe outside of the south and southwest going forward? I think more one-off. The developer we did that with is, you know, super talented and has a big pipeline of Whole Foods developments. We may be able to do some more with him in the future. So, yes, this is more of a one-off. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Jay Cornright from Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is now open.

Hey, thanks. Good morning. If I could just ask a bigger picture question to start, you know, can you talk a little bit about the general supply demand fundamentals you're seeing across the portfolio? You know, is it correct to say that even the power centers have become, I guess, more of a landlord's market where you have more pricing power than, you know, say a year ago where you may be experiencing some cap rate compression? Sure. and then just finally within that, if that is the case, is that what led to the increase in same-store NY in guidance, or are there other dynamics pushing that higher? Sure. I'll take the first part of that question. I'll let Phil answer the second part. Look, definitely the power center market has been, very strong of late and a lot of investor, more investor interest, more diverse tenant interest because you think about it, these large formats are in locations, you can't find the land, you can't build it for the cost that we're able to buy these things for. And so tenants are able to get in good locations good markets for the box they need. And these power centers are sort of morphing into, you know, community centers. For instance, at Carolina Pavilion, we mentioned that we're under contract to sell vacant Joann's to a tenant, and the tenant is a tenant that usually doesn't go into a power center. So, it'll be great for this center to create more traffic and diverse traffic. and bring down the cap rate of the property by a fair amount in our opinion.

Yes, and then on the same store, Jay, it's really kind of three different things moving it. You know, one, I've talked about it before, you know, the same store pool is relatively small. A couple hundred thousand and a quarter is a hundred bips of growth. So I think early in the year we tend to be a little conservative. And then beyond that, just on the revenue side, tenants just moving in at a little quicker pace and getting open. a little quicker. And on the expense side, we really had expenses, I think even if you look comparably, they're down year over year. And it's really three things. The management expense is a little less as we've internalized management at a couple properties. favorable insurance renewal and insurance cost came down and then just timing of repair maintenance it was a little lighter in the quarter so it's really just kind of all of those things that led to the the bump in same-store guidance.