Topic: How To Invest

Pat: Please offer your current recommendation on Granite Real Estate. Thanks.

Article Excerpt

Granite Real Estate, $36.10, symbol GRT on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 46.8 million; Market cap: $1.7 billion; www.graniterealestate.com), is a Canadian company that owns and manages 104 industrial and commercial properties. In all, these buildings contain 28 million square feet of leasable area located in nine countries: Canada (which provides roughly 34% of Granite’s revenue), Austria (30%), the U.S. (18%), Germany (9%), Mexico (7%) and others (2%). The company’s properties consist of light industrial/assembly buildings (which account for 30% of its total leasable area), heavy industrial manufacturing facilities (62%), and corporate offices, product-development centres and test facilities (8%). Granite Real Estate changed its name from MI Developments on June 13, 2012. In the three months ended September 30, 2012, Granite’s revenue fell 1.8%, to $44.7 million from $45.5 million a year earlier. Unfavourable foreign currency rates, partially offset by rent increases, were the main reason for the decline. Cash flow per share rose 14.5%, to $0.63 from $0.55. The prior-year quarter included severance costs related…