Boston Properties Sells Off To New 52-week Low

Sensing that certain properties owned by Boston Properties Inc. BXP may be affected by the problems regional banks are experiencing, investors dumped enough of the real estate investment trust’s (REIT) shares Tuesday to take it to a new 52-week low. That it continued lower while the benchmark REIT exchange-traded funds (ETFs) found support is a concern.

According to its website, Boston Properties is “the largest publicly traded owner, developer and manager of premier workplaces in the United States.” The real estate investment trust runs properties in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

The REIT’s market capitalization is relatively big for the sector at $9.04 billion. Shares trade at 1.37 times book value with a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.9. The price-to-free-cash-flow metric is better than many at 21.49. Funds from operations over the past five years grew by 13% and by 70% over the most recent 12-month period. 

Boston Properties’ long-term debt exceeds shareholder equity by 2.26 times, which may be excessive for value investors.

Shares are actively bought and sold with an average daily volume of 1.42 million.

The company pays a dividend of 7.34%.

In early January, Deutsche Bank AG downgraded its opinion of Boston Properties from Buy to Hold and reduced the price target from $91 to $74.

The daily chart is here:

From an early February high of $78 to the mid-March low of $52 amounts to a quick drop of 33%. Note that the selling bars (reddish, below the price bars) are the heaviest on the chart. It’s a bearish look that Boston Properties trades so far below both the downtrending 50-day moving average (the blue line) and the downtrending 200-day moving average (the red line).

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The monthly chart looks like this:

The most troubling aspect is that the price has slumped to convincingly below the lows of March and October 2020. It’s not attractive that shares trade below the downtrending 50- and 200-week moving averages. The relative strength indicator (RSI) below the price chart has reached the Oversold range.

Not investment advice. For educational purposes only.

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