Invesco Beats Estimates, KBW Upgrades To Outperform

In a report published Friday, analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded

from Market Perform to Outperform. The price target was raised from $17.75 to $18.00. The company reported its core EPS for the quarter ahead of the estimates and the consensus. The EPS outperformance was driven by marginally lower funding expenses than had been estimated by the analysts. Apart from the EPS and higher than estimated book value growth, the overall results were largely in-line with the estimates. The analysts believe that the trailing four quarter economic return for the company was the highest in the sector. According to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, "There are risks in the mREIT space, which is why almost everything in the sector trades at discounts to book. What has tended to earn companies valuation premiums relative peers, however, has been more stable performance, more lower perceived rate risk, and in some cases higher yield." Invesco is currently one of the most highly discounted hybrid mREITS, according to the analysts. The company's performance has been more or less in line with its peer group average for the last few years. "We don't expect it to be the sector's top performer in terms of book value stability or economic return, but we expect it will be at least average and likely among the highest in shareholder return if/when the valuation discount vs. peers narrows," the analysts added.