Kite Realty reports profit, bumps up earnings outlook

Kite Realty Group Trust reported higher quarterly profit Thursday afternoon and slightly raised its guidance for the year.

The Indianapolis-based real estate company said it earned a small third-quarter profit of $412,000, or 1 cent per share, compared with a loss of $16.4 million, or 20 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

The real estate investment trust said it had funds from operations of $43.9 million, or 51 cents per share, in the period, slightly beating Wall Street expectations.

The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for FFO of 50 cents per share. FFO is a closely watched measure in the REIT industry. It takes net income and adds back items such as depreciation and amortization.

The real estate investment trust posted revenue of $87.1 million in the period, down 1.6 percent from the same quarter of 2014. The revenue also beat analyst forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $85.3 million.

Kite slightly increased the low end of its full-year outlook, saying it expects FFO in the range of $1.98 to $2 per share, up from $1.95 to $2.

Occupancy in its real estate portfolio held steady. Kite, which owns 115 properties totaling 23 million square feet as of Sept. 30, said the properties were 94.8 percent leased, the same as the previous quarter.

Kite executed 107 leases totaling 796,233 square feet during the third quarter.

Company shares closed at $26.36 each Thursday prior to the release of the earnings report, down 17 cents for the day. The company's shares have decreased slightly more than 8 percent since the beginning of the year.