Sun Communities (SUI) First Quarter of 2018 performance results are out.
Sun’s Gary Shiffman is talking about it.
“We started 2018 on a positive pace posting $1.14 in core FFO per share which is at the top end of our guidance range. All cylinders are firing on our operations front and both, our manufactured housing and high RV components driven by outperformance in our rental program and home sales net profit, as well as lower than expected interest expenses,” said Gary Shiffman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sun Communities (SUI), per Seeking Alpha’s investor call transcript.
“Same community revenue growth for the quarter was 5.7%. We did experience 6.6% same community expense growth in the quarter, the majority of which related to a one-time reserve increase for certain general liability claims and increased utility usage in the Midwest, Texas and Florida which we attribute to significantly lower temperatures for the period. Demand for the high quality lifestyles Sun delivers remains robust. For the quarter, Sun gained 616 revenue producing sites which included outperformance in RV conversions from transient to annual sites. Home sales volume rose 1.3% to 837 homes in the quarter, driven by an almost 40% increase in new home sales. The bulk of our over 100 new home sales in the quarter were in Florida, Arizona, South Carolina and Texas highlighting the diversification and increased demand throughout the portfolio,” said Shiffman.
“In the quarter, we also completed the construction of 246 expansion sites and two manufactured housing communities that will contribute to revenue growth as these sites lease up over the coming quarters. The Company remains on pace to complete construction of approximately 1,350 expansion sites in 16 communities of which 1,000 are in 12 manufactured home communities and 350 are in 4 RV Resorts by the end of 2018. On a final growth front, our ground up developments continue to progress, the construction work at our 332 site Cava Robles RV Resort is nearly complete. The resort is now accepting reservations and is scheduled to open by the end of second quarter. Construction at Carolina Pines are 840 site development at South Carolina began in the first quarter and we expect to complete approximately 470 sites by the second quarter of 2019,” Shiffman said.
The SUI supplemental package is linked here as a download.
A recent look by MHProNews at Sun Communities IR snapshots, is linked below.
Sun Communities Annual Data and Manufactured Housing Industry Investor Presentation Highlights
Shiffman’s 20th Anniversary as Public Company Video
As background color, this video of Shiffman provides some interesting context. Listen to his facts then, and compare it to the growth in roughly the last 5 years.
Sun is shown as #1 in the latest list of manufactured home communities, for that list, click here or below.
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