First Industrial Gets a BUY Rating

CHICAGO—The investment bank and institutional broker MLV & Co. LLC just released its latest earnings review of First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. and decided to maintain its BUY rating for the Chicago-based operator and developer of industrial properties. MLV researchers found that its internal fundamentals remain strong and expects that a “recent S&P upgrade to investment grade will be followed by the other ratings agencies.”

First Industrial did miss, by a slight amount, MLV’s estimate of its cash flow. The trust reported a first quarter “core FFO/share of $0.26, which was below our estimate of $0.28 and consensus of $0.27,” the researchers noted. However, same-store NOI increased by 2.3% and trust has also seen an increase in occupancy, which went up 280 bps since the first quarter of 2013. MLV also increased its price target for the trust from $21 to $22. As of April 25, its price on the NYSE was $18.56.