Andrzej Rostek/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis iShares Core REIT ETF ( USRT ) continues to warrant a hold rating based on a mixed outlook for the fund. USRT offers investors a low-cost way to capture strong, diversified REITs. However, the ETF's top holdings have stretched valuations. Additionally, multiple risks exist including interest rate risk and opportunity cost compared to alterna...
Andrzej Rostek/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis iShares Core REIT ETF ( USRT ) continues to warrant a hold rating based on a mixed outlook for the fund. USRT offers investors a low-cost way to capture strong, diversified REITs. However, the ETF's top holdings have stretched valuations. Additionally, multiple risks exist including interest rate risk and opportunity cost compared to alternatives. iShares Core REIT ETF - Overview and Compared ETFs USRT is a passive ETF that tracks an index designed to represent U.S. REITs including mostly health care REITs, retail REITs, and industrial REITs. With its inception in 2007, the fund has 127 holdings and $3.77B in AUM. I wrote about the fund almost one year ago and rated the fund a hold. I believe the fund still warrants a hold for the reasons discussed in this article. For comparison purposes, other funds examined are Schwab US REIT ETF ( SCHH ), Vanguard Real Estate ETF ( VNQ ), and State Street Real Estate Select Sector SPDR ETF ( XLRE ). SCHH attempts to provide investors with the total return of U.S. REITs while excluding mortgage and hybrid REITs. VNQ is the most diversified REIT fund but captures similar weights as USRT. XLRE aims to capture a representative selection of REITs within the S&P 500 Index, excluding mortgage REITs. Because all these funds compared have similar objectives, investors should look for any marginal advantages including expense ratios and dividend yield. USRT Compared: Performance, Expense Ratio, and Dividend Yield U.S. REIT funds have significantly underperformed the broader U.S. market over the past decade, predominantly due to inflation, interest rates, and more attractive alternatives. USRT has seen a 10-year average annual return of 5.46%, outperforming both SCHH and VNQ with 10-year average annual returns of 3.26% and 4.63%. XLRE saw the best performance with a 10-year average annual return of 6.01%. 10-Year Total Return: USRT and Compared REIT ETFs (Seeking Alpha) All funds hav...
Richard Drury/DigitalVision via Getty Images Back in early December of last year, I made the decision to reaffirm Valley National Bancorp ( VLY ) as a 'buy' candidate. This was in spite of the fact that the stock had been underperforming the market, and it was driven by my overall view of the valuation of the company and its asset quality metrics. Since then, things have turned out nicely. While t...
Richard Drury/DigitalVision via Getty Images Back in early December of last year, I made the decision to reaffirm Valley National Bancorp ( VLY ) as a 'buy' candidate. This was in spite of the fact that the stock had been underperforming the market, and it was driven by my overall view of the valuation of the company and its asset quality metrics. Since then, things have turned out nicely. While the S&P 500 is more or less flat, shares of this prospect have risen 14.2%. This is thanks to continued growth when it comes to both the income statement and the balance sheet. The company is benefiting from a declining interest rate environment, and asset quality remains robust. Despite the fact that the stock has risen, shares are still priced at levels that I would consider to be attractive enough to justify a bullish outlook, even if barely. Because of that, I will maintain my 'buy' rating on it right now. Of course, my opinion could change as new data comes in. And it just so happens that, in the coming days, management will be announcing results for the first quarter of the company's 2026 fiscal year. Those results will come out before the market opens on April 23rd. Leading up to that point, analysts believe that revenue and profitability for the institution will improve nicely. So unless something big comes out of the woodwork that materially changes my view of the business, I think that sticking with my bullish outlook is warranted. I'm Still Banking on Valley National Bancorp Fundamentally speaking, I would say that things are going quite well for Valley National Bancorp right now. Take the final quarter of the 2025 fiscal year as an example. Deposits for the institution totaled $52.18 billion. That's up solidly from the $50.08 billion that the company reported a year earlier. This overall expansion is nice to see, though it is worth noting that uninsured deposit exposure did increase somewhat. The firm went from having $12.6 billion, or about 25% of its overall de...
Welcome to our guide to the commodities driving the global economy. Today, oil and shipping reporter Weilun Soon says the mayhem in the Persian Gulf doesn’t bode well for both ending the war and restraining crude prices. The chaos in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend was a reality check for the oil market about how hard it will be to reopen the vital waterway. For a brief moment on Friday, it ...
Welcome to our guide to the commodities driving the global economy. Today, oil and shipping reporter Weilun Soon says the mayhem in the Persian Gulf doesn’t bode well for both ending the war and restraining crude prices. The chaos in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend was a reality check for the oil market about how hard it will be to reopen the vital waterway. For a brief moment on Friday, it seemed as though the more than 800 vessels stuck in the Persian Gulf had a window of opportunity to make an escape after the Iranian foreign minister declared the strait “completely open.” But with the US refusing to lift its own blockade, the Iranians reversed their position within 24 hours and the strait became a picture of mayhem and panic. As Tehran and Washington battled over the narrative of who had control of the corridor, it was the Iranians who first put words into action. One Indian tanker that was attempting to exit was approached by small boats with armed men. Crew on board ships nearby heard a captain shouting in despair that his vessel was given clearance to transit, but was instead getting shot at. Other vessels attempting to exit then U-turned en masse. Not to be outdone, the US Navy fired upon and boarded an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman, the first seizure of a vessel since it started its blockade. The day of pandemonium left traffic through the strait back at a near standstill , with the double blockade remaining in place. With the current ceasefire set to expire on Tuesday, the outlook for potential peace talks in Pakistan between the two sides isn’t looking great. The Iranians say they see no “clear prospect” of an agreement, despite President Donald Trump’s insistence that a deal is possible. The global shipping community is struggling to make sense of the situation. Yet Brent crude was up only around 5% at the time of writing near $95 a barrel, indicating that many in the oil market still have a glass-half-full mindset about the prospe...
adaask/iStock via Getty Images Investors often say that REIT dividend yields are too low relative to treasury yields as a reason to stay away from the sector. The biggest REIT ETF is the Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF ( VNQ ), and it is only offering a 3.6% dividend yield, just shy of the 10-year Treasury ( IEF ): Invitation Homes But this is very misleading. What these investors seem to igno...
adaask/iStock via Getty Images Investors often say that REIT dividend yields are too low relative to treasury yields as a reason to stay away from the sector. The biggest REIT ETF is the Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF ( VNQ ), and it is only offering a 3.6% dividend yield, just shy of the 10-year Treasury ( IEF ): Invitation Homes But this is very misleading. What these investors seem to ignore is that these REIT ETFs are market-cap weighted, and as a result, they are dominated by mega-cap REITs, which happen to typically focus on high-growth (low-yield) sectors like data centers, cell towers, and e-commerce warehouses. Moreover, these REITs typically use little leverage and retain a big chunk of their cash flow to reinvest in growth. Remember that the 90% REIT payout rule applies to taxable income, which is far lower than cash flow due to non-cash depreciation. As such, some mega-cap REITs like SBA Communications ( SBAC ) pay out as little as 35% of their cash flow. Not surprisingly, this will lower the dividend yields of these REIT ETFs. But if you dig deeper, there are actually a lot of individual REITs hidden below the surface that are offering 6-7% dividend yields that are safely covered and growing. It just requires a bit more effort to find those. In what follows, I am going to present 3 such examples that we are busy accumulating because we think that they are undervalued. Sila Realty Trust ( SILA ): 6.3% Dividend Yield Sila Realty Trust is a triple net lease REIT that specializes in healthcare properties such as medical office buildings, surgical facilities, and rehab centers. Sila Realty Trust Its properties are all leased on a triple net basis, meaning that it has long leases with an average remaining term of 10 years, with steady 2% annual rent escalations, and its tenants are responsible for all property expenses. This results in highly consistent and predictable cash flow. Sila Realty Trust Importantly, the REIT is underleveraged with a low 4x Deb...
It's time to buy Okta as a boom in the artificial intelligence industry fuels demand for identity-based security solutions, according to Barclays. The bank upgraded the cybersecurity software stock to overweight from equal weight. It also raised its price target to $90 from $85, implying 24.6% upside from Friday's close. The rating change come as "as identity moves to the top spending security pri...
It's time to buy Okta as a boom in the artificial intelligence industry fuels demand for identity-based security solutions, according to Barclays. The bank upgraded the cybersecurity software stock to overweight from equal weight. It also raised its price target to $90 from $85, implying 24.6% upside from Friday's close. The rating change come as "as identity moves to the top spending security priority in our CIO survey, checks improve intra-quarter on demand and execution, and we see upside from the agentic opportunity," analyst Saket Kalia said Monday in a note to clients. He noted that Okta has already shown several signs of developing its business and bringing in more customers. "Our recent checks on Okta have been incrementally better than prior quarters, with a more constructive and consistent tone across partners and customers, Kalia wrote. "We think this improvement reflects a mix of healthier underlying demand, improving execution and stronger channel engagement, in-line with management's partner- first messaging over the past few [quarters]." Okta is a cloud-based solution that enables clients to connect to multiple applications with a single credential using an identity and access management platform. It's a tool that could become useful, not just for humans, but for agentic AI bots as well. Agentic AI is a term for the set of tools and services that assist users with a variety of tasks, which has received considerable attention from technology giants over the past few months. The growing agentic AI trend could be an opportunity for Okta to bolster its business. "Agentic is starting to be viewed as an identity problem - agents are essentially extensions of human identities that operate at a much greater scale, which naturally pulls agent governance and assigning guardrails to those agents as an identity problem," Kalia wrote. "As a result, we are not be surprised to see multiple vendors trying to participate in this space and expect competition to pick up...
Union’s interim head coach has been given a hospital pass and, despite a vastly improved performance, her team went down to Wolfsburg So different, but absolutely the same. If you had wanted a clear demonstration of why exactly 1. FC Union Berlin was just the place for Marie-Louise Eta to become the first female head coach in a top five European league, you got it on Saturday afternoon . Eta made ...
Union’s interim head coach has been given a hospital pass and, despite a vastly improved performance, her team went down to Wolfsburg So different, but absolutely the same. If you had wanted a clear demonstration of why exactly 1. FC Union Berlin was just the place for Marie-Louise Eta to become the first female head coach in a top five European league, you got it on Saturday afternoon . Eta made her debut at the helm in the Bundesliga match with Wolfsburg and after a week in which both she and Union were global news , with coach and club visibly taken aback by the media flocking to Berlin to see her opening press conference and debut in charge, just being able to get to work was a relief. And there is really no place to ply your trade in Germany, or in Europe, quite like the Stadion An der Alten Försterei. As the team lineups are read out before kick-off there is a call and response, with each player’s name met with the collective reply “Fußballgott!” (Football God). On Saturday, when Eta’s name was announced, it was met with a united “Fußballgöttin!” (Football Goddess). On an extraordinary day, it was touchingly normal. Continue reading...
The number of inbound trips to Hong Kong by mainland Chinese visitors is expected to reach 980,000 for the coming Labour Day “golden week” holiday across the border, a 7 per cent increase from last year, with city authorities saying they will enforce environmental regulations around the clock at popular camping spots. The estimate from the Immigration Department on Monday came as the government re...
The number of inbound trips to Hong Kong by mainland Chinese visitors is expected to reach 980,000 for the coming Labour Day “golden week” holiday across the border, a 7 per cent increase from last year, with city authorities saying they will enforce environmental regulations around the clock at popular camping spots. The estimate from the Immigration Department on Monday came as the government revealed it had stepped up measures for crowd control, transport and tourism in anticipation of a...
US equity futures fall and oil climbs after the US Navy attacked and boarded an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman. Iran says it has no plans to attend potential negotiations with the US in Pakistan with the ceasefire expiring on Tuesday. Amy Wu Silverman of RBC Capital Markets discusses the market volatility amid renewed uncertainties around the war. (Source: Bloomberg)
US equity futures fall and oil climbs after the US Navy attacked and boarded an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman. Iran says it has no plans to attend potential negotiations with the US in Pakistan with the ceasefire expiring on Tuesday. Amy Wu Silverman of RBC Capital Markets discusses the market volatility amid renewed uncertainties around the war. (Source: Bloomberg)
Alones Creative The scale of the current oil disruption exceeds past crises, with recovery likely to be slow and uneven rather than swift, according to Société Générale. Dr. Mike Haigh, head of FIC and commodity, argued that while historical oil shocks -- from the Iranian revolution to the Iran-Iraq war -- eventually saw supply replaced or demand adjust, the present disruption is constrained less ...
Alones Creative The scale of the current oil disruption exceeds past crises, with recovery likely to be slow and uneven rather than swift, according to Société Générale. Dr. Mike Haigh, head of FIC and commodity, argued that while historical oil shocks -- from the Iranian revolution to the Iran-Iraq war -- eventually saw supply replaced or demand adjust, the present disruption is constrained less by production capacity and more by logistics, geopolitics and financial frictions. A key issue is the closure of critical transit routes, particularly the Strait of Hormuz, which Société Générale estimates removed roughly 10M barrels per day of supply in March alone -- equivalent to a significant share of global output. Unlike prior shocks, where alternative producers could ramp up output relatively quickly, the current bottleneck lies in moving oil rather than extracting it. The bank highlighted that disrupted shipping flows, longer transit times and the withdrawal of war-risk insurance are slowing the reallocation of supply across regions, creating persistent imbalances. Historically, such disruptions have taken time to unwind. Société Générale noted that significant Middle East oil supply shocks since 1956 have required around eight months on average to normalize, reinforcing its view that expectations for a rapid recovery are overly optimistic. The bank now expects the current disruption -- described as the largest supply shock on record -- to normalize only by the end of 2026. Societe Generale As a result, the shock is propagating through the global system in stages rather than all at once. Cargoes can take anywhere from 10 days to reach India to as long as 40 days to reach the U.S. Gulf Coast, meaning shortages emerge sequentially across markets. This staggered impact has already led to sharp regional divergences. OECD countries have absorbed much of the immediate strain through large inventory drawdowns and strategic petroleum reserve releases, while emerging markets...
Karat Packing (KRT) witnessed a jump in share price last session on above-average trading volume. The latest trend in earnings estimate revisions for the stock doesn't suggest further strength down the road.
Karat Packing (KRT) witnessed a jump in share price last session on above-average trading volume. The latest trend in earnings estimate revisions for the stock doesn't suggest further strength down the road.