Simon Property Group: Not The Best Investment At This Point

Summary

  • Simon Property Group reported second quarter results and is still growing in the single digits and with a solid pace.
  • Additionally, base minimum rent and occupancy rates are also improving.
  • However, the looming recession should make us rather cautious, and the stock seems to be a bit overvalued at this point.

ronniechua

Usually, I try to focus in my articles on companies with a wide economic moat around the business, but from time to time, I also cover companies not really fitting that description. One example is Simon Property Group, Inc. (

Combining these aspects, a potential recession on the horizon, Simon Property Group already having trouble to grow with a high pace in the last few years and analysts also being cautious, we could make the case that Simon Property Group seems fairly valued at this point. And although I was bullish in my last article when Simon Property Group was trading more or less for the same price, I would switch my rating to “Hold” again.

Quarterly Results

Simon Property Group Q2/24 Supplemental Material

We are increasing our full-year 2024 guidance range to $12.80 to $12.90 per share compared to $12.51 last year. This is an increase of $0.05 at the bottom end of the range and $0.02 at the midpoint and reflects overcoming approximately $0.15 per share from certain retailer restructurings, lower lease settlement and land sales, land sales income this year.

Good evening, everyone. I'm pleased with our financial and operational performance in the second quarter. We are seeing increased leasing volumes, occupancy gains, shopper traffic, and retail sales volumes resulted in the company's highest level of real estate NOI for the second quarter in our company's history. Demand for our space from a broad spectrum of tenants is strong and steady.

Further Metrics

Simon Property Group Q2/24 Supplemental Material

Continued leasing momentum, resilient consumer spending and operational excellence delivered results exceeding our plan for the quarter. Portfolio NOI, which includes our international properties at constant currency, grew 4.8% for the quarter.

(…)

As David mentioned, leasing momentum continued across the portfolio. We signed more than 1,400 leases for approximately 4.8 million square feet in the quarter. Approximately 30% of our leasing activity in the second quarter was new deal volume. Our traffic in the second quarter was up 5% compared to last year.

We will open our Tulsa premium outlets on August 15th at 100% leased and we will also open a significant expansion at Busan Premium Outlets in South Korea this fall. We also started construction in the quarter on our first phase of a new luxury residential development at Northgate Station. This project will include 234 units and adds other elements that further transforms Northgate into the ultimate live, work, skate, stay and shop destination. At the end of the quarter, new development and redevelopment projects were underway across all platforms in the US and internationally with our share of net cost of $1.1 billion and a blended yield of 8%.

I think we're pretty comfortable thinking that we're going to end the year north of 96%. Certainly still a little bit of noise out there, but given the robust demand in the type of environment we're in, we think we're north of 96% by the end of the year.

Raising Dividend Again

Recession

FRED

FRED

S&P Global

So look, I think we've been pretty consistent for well over a year that the lower-income consumer has been under pressure for quite some time, primarily because of the inflation that's affected them. So that continues to be the case, they are very focused on managing their bills and discretionary expenditures have been obviously not where we'd like to see them.

So we're optimistic that we're going to cycle out of that from the lower-end consumer as given the inflation picture that we see now, which is relatively benign. It's way too early, Jeff. We haven't seen a slowdown in the higher-end consumer. Obviously, the market is in an interesting point. We have not seen the wealth impact at all impact that higher-end consumer. So we're still pretty sanguine about it. I think, as you know, we kind of budgeted at the beginning of the year flat sales.

Intrinsic Value Calculation

Data by YCharts

Conclusion

Data by YCharts

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