Duke Realty meets expectations with profitable fourth quarter

Duke Realty Corp. matched Wall Street expectations with its fourth quarter financial performance despite a small decline in profitability.

The Indianapolis-based real estate investment trust on Wednesday reported funds from operations of $110 million, or 30 cents per share, in the quarter. Funds from operations, or FFO, is a closely watched measure in the REIT industry. It takes net income and adds back items such as depreciation and amortization.

The average prediction of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for FFO of 30 cents per share.

Duke said its quarterly profit was $109.87 million, or 30 cents per share, down from $111.46 million, or 31 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Revenue for the quarter rose 19 percent, to $215.62 million, up from $181.15 million in the previous year. Its adjusted revenue was $179.4 million, beating forecasts. Analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $175 million.

For the year, the company reported funds from operations of $450 million, or $1.24 per share. Revenue was reported as $686.5 million.

Duke said it expects full-year FFO in the range of $1.24 to $1.30 per share.

The developer said it closed on $248 million in building sales during the fourth quarter and $3.1 billion during the year. It also closed on acquisitions of eight bulk industrial buildings for $367 million during the period, bringing total acquisitions for the year to $997 million.

It also started three industrial development projects with expected costs of $207 million in the quarter, bringing the total expected costs of development starts for the year to $866 million.

Duke stock rose 3 percent Thursday morning, to $27.21 per share.