Two top REITs for growth and income

Article Excerpt

H&R REIT $21.22 (Toronto symbol HR.UN; Units outstanding: 269.6 million; Market cap: $5.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 6.4%; www.hr-reit.com) owns stakes in 42 office buildings, 112 industrial properties and 164 shopping malls across Canada. The trust has a 98.2% occupancy rate. In March 2013, H&R finished building The Bow, a $1.33-billion, two-million-square-foot office complex in Calgary. Encana Corp. has already leased the entire building for 25 years. In April 2013, H&R completed the purchase of 27 properties from Primaris REIT for about $3.1 billion. These assets include the aging 567,000-square-foot Dufferin Mall in Toronto’s west end, which has huge redevelopment potential. As well, eight of the 27 properties now have Target stores as their main tenants. In the three months ended September 30, 2013, the REIT’s revenue rose 52.9%, to $305.8 million from $200.0 million a year earlier. The gain mostly came from the addition of the Primaris properties. Cash flow rose 63.8%, to $129.1 million from…