Equity LifeStyle Keeps $3.18 FFO Midpoint As Core Property Income Rises 6.7% In Third Quarter
A $12.1 million deferred tax charge cut reported per-share earnings to $0.45, while the REIT narrowed its 2026 range around an unchanged midpoint.
Equity LifeStyle Properties said in an 8-K filed Wednesday that third-quarter normalized funds from operations were $0.79 per share and unit, up 4.6% from $0.75 a year earlier. The results were announced in a news release dated Tuesday, and a $12.1 million deferred tax valuation allowance pulled net income per share down to $0.45 from $0.50.
What the results show
Normalized FFO, which strips out items the company treats as non-operating, landed at the midpoint of the prior $0.76 to $0.82 guidance range. Standard FFO per share and unit fell 6.1% to $0.72 from $0.77, and the company says both that figure and net income include the tax allowance. Net income per common share fell 11.1%.
Operations were stronger than the headline earnings. Core property operating revenues rose 4.4%, core operating expenses excluding property management rose 1.3%, and core income from property operations on that basis rose 6.7%. For the nine months, normalized FFO was $2.36, up 4.0%.
Manufactured-home core base rental income rose 5.7% in the quarter, 0.1% above the midpoint of prior guidance. Occupied manufactured-home sites rose by 99 and home sales totaled 244. Core RV and marina base rental income rose 2.1%, with annual rent up 5.3% and annual membership subscriptions up 8.4%.
Guidance: midpoint holds, ranges narrow
The company kept its full-year normalized FFO midpoint at $3.18, within a narrowed range of $3.15 to $3.21. It set fourth-quarter normalized FFO at $0.78 to $0.84. The company said the full-year ranges were narrowed to reflect nine months of actual results.
The midpoint for core RV and marina base rental income growth was trimmed to 1.2% from 1.6%. Core property revenue growth moved to 4.3% from 4.4%, and core expense growth to 1.9% from 2.1%. The midpoint for core income growth stayed at 6.0%, and manufactured-home rent growth at 5.7%.
Preliminary 2027 rent assumptions
The company's preliminary 2027 assumptions call for core manufactured-home base rent growth of about 5.1% and core RV annual rent growth of about 4.7%. It expects to send 2027 rent increase notices to about 50% of manufactured-home residents by October month-end, and says it has set RV annual rates for more than 95% of annual sites.
The assumptions exclude any contribution from additional sites that may be occupied in 2027.
Management hosts a webcast call at 11:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday to discuss the results.
