$Vornado Realty Trust(VNO-N)$’s VNO 52% owned street retail joint venture (“JV”) recently completed a $450 million financing of 1535 Broadway, a premier Times Square retail destination with full blockfront 4K LED signage.

The interest-only, non-recourse loan carries a fixed rate of 6.90% and is slated to mature in May 2030.

After considering transaction costs and reserves, $407 million of the net proceeds from the financing was utilized to partially redeem preferred equity of Vornado’s Retail JV.

VNO: In a Snapshot

With added balance-sheet strength, the company is well-positioned to capitalize on long-term growth opportunities. As of Dec. 31, 2024, it had $2.5 billion of liquidity, consisting of $950 million of cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash and $1.5 billion available under its $2.2 billion revolving credit facilities.

Vornado’s focus on having assets in a few select high-rent, high barrier-to-entry geographic markets and its diversified tenant base, including several industry bellwethers, are expected to fuel its growth over the long term.

Over the past six months, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have declined 15.1% compared with the industry's fall of 11.4%.

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Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader REIT sector are Cousins Properties CUZ and Welltower WELL, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CUZ’s 2024 funds from operation (FFO) per share has moved 1.1% northward over the past month to $2.79.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WELL’s current-year FFO per share has been raised marginally over the past month to $4.95.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents FFO, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.

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Vornado Realty Trust (VNO) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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