filo
With Q2 earnings season wrapped up for real estate investment trusts, Wells Fargo upgraded three residential REITs and downgraded one.
Analyst James Feldman upgraded Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) to Overweight from Equal Weight, Camden Property Trust (NYSE:CPT) to Equal Weight from Underweight, and AMH (NYSE:AMH) to Overweight from Equal Weight. Invitation Homes (NYSE:INVH) was cut to Equal Weight from Overweight.
Feldman raised Mid-America Apartment (MAA) to Overweight as he sees a smoother glide path back to higher same-store revenue growth given CPT’s bad debt gains will make Y/Y comparisons tougher. “WELLS expects Sunbelt supply pressures to fade as it turns to 2026 offering continued upside assuming Sunbelt demand continues to outpace coastal,” the analyst said.
Camden Property Trust’s (CPT) upgrade to Equal Weight reflects the expectation that strength in the apartment REIT’s Washington, DC, southern California, and Florida markets will offset Sunbelt weakness, combined with the outlook for active transaction activity in quarters ahead.
“CPT’s 13.5% NOI [net operating income] exposure to DC has helped buoy portfolio fundamentals as that market, and particularly Northern Virginia, has seen the best rent growth YTD across WELLS’s MF [multifamily] coverage,” Feldman wrote.
The analyst raised AMH (AMH) to Overweight as the single-family-home rental REIT “has a long runway to expand the portfolio through acquisitions and development, grow earnings, and achieve operating synergies through increased density and scale.”
Overall, Wells Fargo has a favorable view on single-family rental demand and expects both AMH (AMH) and Invitation Homes (INVH). However, Invitation Homes “has more portfolio concentration risk vs. peers and less new lease pricing power vs. peer AMH year-to-date,” Feldman said.
Of those four stocks, the only one that the SA Quant system has a Buy rating for is Mid-America Apartment (MAA). Meanwhile, the average Wall Street rating for MAA is Hold, with the other three stocks getting a Buy rating.
In Monday premarket trading, Mid-America Apartment (MAA) stock rose 1.2%, Camden Property Trust (CPT) increased 1.0%, and AMH (AMH) jumped 3.4%, while Invitation Homes (INVH) was unchanged.
