• Investor Relations
  • News & Events
    • Events
    • Press Releases
    • Presentations
  • Financials & Filings
    • Results Center
    • SEC Filings
    • Organizational Actions
  • Governance
    • Corporate Governance
    • Board of Directors
    • Committee Composition
  • Contact
    • Contact Us
    • FAQs
    • Transfer Agent
    • Dividend Reinvestment Plan
    • Email Alerts

FAQs


The initial public offering of SITE Centers common shares was February 2, 1993 (Ticker: DDR) trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Yes. A one-for-two reverse stock split occurred on May 21, 2018.

SITE Centers does not offer the direct purchase or sale of its common or preferred shares. All stock transactions should be handled through a stock brokerage firm of your choice.

Common shares and preferred depositary shares are listed and predominantly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols: SITC, SITC_pa, SITC_ph, SITC_pj.

The CUSIP number is 82981J.

Yes we do. If you would like to sign up for direct deposit of your dividends, please call our transfer agent, Computershare at 1-866-282-4937 or visit their website here. Please note you must be the record holder of the shares to qualify for direct deposit of dividends.

December 31

Online copies of our quarterly earnings releases are available here.

You can download any of the Annual Reports from our Financials and Filings section, here.

REITs were created in 1960 by the U.S. Congress in order to make investments in income-producing real estate accessible to the average investor.

A Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is a corporation or trust that combines capital of many investors to acquire or provide financing for all forms of real estate. A REIT serves much like a mutual fund for real estate. In many cases, a REIT’s shares are freely traded, often on a major stock exchange.

REITs enable anyone to invest in portfolios of real estate by purchasing stock, without having to purchase or finance property. Stockholders of a REIT earn a share of the income produced through real estate investment, similar to the way in which shareholders realize benefits from owning shares of other publicly traded corporations.

A corporation or trust that qualifies as a REIT generally does not pay corporate income tax to the Internal Revenues Service. Most states honor this federal treatment and do not require REITs to pay state income tax. This is a unique feature and one of the most attractive aspects of a REIT, as it means that nearly all of a REIT's income can be distributed to shareholders, and there is no double taxation of the income to the shareholder. Unlike a partnership, a REIT cannot pass its tax losses onto its investors.

In order for a corporation to qualify as a REIT, it must comply with certain provisions with the internal revenue code. As required by the tax code, a REIT must:

  • Be a corporation, business trust or similar association;
  • Be managed by a board of directors or trustees;
  • Have shares that are fully transferable;
  • Have a minimum of 100 shareholders;
  • Have no more than 50% of the shares held by five or fewer individuals during the last half of each taxable year;
  • Invest at least 75% of the total assets in real estate assets;
  • Derive at least 75% of gross income from rents from real property, or interest on mortgages on real property;
  • Pay dividends of at least 90% of REIT taxable income.

Thousands of investors, both in and outside of the U.S., own shares of REITs as a means of diversifying their portfolios through the ownership of real estate. So do pension funds, endowment funds, insurance companies, bank trust departments and mutual funds.

An individual who chooses to invest in a REIT seeks to achieve current income distributions and long-term stock appreciation potential. REITs can provide investors with a hedge against inflation, because landlords have the ability to raise rental fees if interest rates begin to rise.

REITs provide several notable advantages for investors: strong and reliable dividends, solid long-term performance, portfolio diversification, liquidity and transparency.

Shares of publicly traded REITs typically can be purchased on the open market, with no minimum purchase required, through a securities dealer. Investors may choose to purchase common stock, preferred stock or debt securities. Investors may desire to engage the services of a broker, investment advisor or financial planner to help identify and evaluate their financial objectives.

REITs offer a number of advantages that are often not available in companies across other industries. These benefits are part of the reason that REITs have become increasingly popular with investors in recent decades. Below are some reasons why investors choose REITs:

  • Dividends: By law, REITs are required to pay out at least 90% of their taxable income as dividends to shareholders. Investors then pay income taxes on those dividends at ordinary rates.
  • Performance: Over the 30 years ended March 28, 2013, publicly traded equity REITs outperformed the leading stock market indexes, including the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrials and NASDAQ Composite.
  • Growth: Over long holding periods, returns on equity REITs have generally exceeded the rate of inflation, helping REIT investors hedge the purchasing power of their portfolios.
  • Professional management: REIT managers are skilled, experienced real estate professionals.
  • Diversification: Equity REITs invest in many different property types across the globe, which offers investors the benefits of investment diversification by property and geography. Over the long term, equity REIT returns have followed a path that has been different than the path of returns for other stocks, creating an essential means of portfolio diversification for investors.
  • Liquidity: Investors can easily buy and trade shares of publicly traded REITs. Approximately 200 REITs are traded on major stock exchanges.
  • Transparency: Publicly traded REITs are required to follow the same standards for regulatory and financial reporting as other publicly traded corporations.

Publicly traded REITs provide investors with the benefits of commercial real estate ownership, in addition to the advantages of investing in a publicly traded stock. The following are key fundamentals associated with REITs:

  • Liquidity: Investors can buy and sell shares in REITs in the same manner as with any other publicly traded company. Shares of REITs are traded on the major U.S. stock exchanges, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq, American Stock Exchange (AMEX), in addition to various after-hours markets.
  • Shareholder Value: Shareholders of REITs can receive value in two key forms: income from dividends and appreciation in share price, just like investors in other public companies.
  • Active Management/Corporate Governance: Publicly traded REITs are actively and professionally managed corporations that follow the same corporate governance principles that apply to all major public companies. Publicly traded REITs have a senior management team that is led by a chief executive officer who actively manages the overall strategic vision and equity of the enterprise. The CEO is appointed by the board of directors, which is elected by and accountable to the REIT’s shareholders.
  • Disclosure Obligation: Because they operate under the same regulatory requirements of other publicly traded companies in the U.S., publicly traded REITs must make periodic financial disclosures to investors, such as quarterly and yearly audited financial results with accompanying filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
  • No Shareholder Liability: REIT shareholders have no personal liability for the debts of the REITs in which they invest, as is the case for equity holders in other publicly traded companies.

For tax purposes, REIT dividend distributions are allocated to ordinary income, capital gains and return of capital, each of which may be taxed at a different rate. REITs and all public companies are required early each year to provide their shareholders with information that clarifies how the prior year's dividends should be allocated for tax purposes. Each company distributes this information to its list of shareholders via IRS Form 1099-DIV.

Dividends paid in excess of the REIT’s taxable income are defined as return-of-capital distributions. A return-of-capital distribution is nontaxable to the shareholder. The distribution reduces the shareholder’s cost basis in its stock by the amount of return of capital. When shares are sold, the excess of the net sales price over the reduced basis is treated as a capital gain for tax purposes. To the extent capital gain rates are less than the shareholder’s marginal ordinary income tax rate, a high return of capital gain distribution may be attractive.

Several factors affect the value of a REIT’s share price, beginning with the earnings, which are tied to generally predictable and growing streams of rental revenue, as well as a price-earnings multiple that is determined by the market.

The dollar amount and growth of rents are primarily determined by the economic fundamentals of supply and demand in real estate markets. Chief among these fundamentals are demographics, such as population size, population growth, employment growth, construction and the overall amount of economic activity. These fundamentals vary by region, but they all typically influence rents and occupancy rates, which in turn affect projected earnings and property values.

Another determining factor of REIT valuations is net asset value (NAV). NAV represents net market value of all a company's assets, including but not limited to its properties, after subtracting all liabilities and obligations. When divided by the number of common shares outstanding, the net asset value per share is a useful guideline for determining a REIT’s appropriate share price.

Additionally, enhancements to a REIT’s property portfolio through consistent capital expenditures can positively affect a company’s valuation. Strategic property portfolio enhancements help to maintain or increase NAVs and can provide the basis for price appreciation of a REIT’s shares.

Funds from operations (FFO) is among the primary measures used to assess REITs’ operating performance. The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) defines FFO as net income excluding gains or losses from sales of most property and real estate depreciation. REITs are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission to reconcile FFO to the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) definition of net income. The reason REITs do not factor depreciation into FFO is that most investors and analysts agree that real estate maintains residual value to a much larger extent than machinery, equipment or other types of hard assets. Therefore, the GAAP definition of net income can overstate the depreciation of real estate investments, distorting REITs’ operating performance.

Many analysts also use an additional non-GAAP financial measure, Operating or Adjusted FFO, to assess and compare REITs’ performance. Operating FFO is generally calculated by SITE Centers as FFO excluding certain charges and gains that management believes are not indicative of the results of the operating real estate portfolio such as land impairments and gains and losses recognized on land sales. Other REITs may calculate FFO and Operating FFO in a different manner. For more information, please see our most recent SEC filings.

At a high level, REITs grow their earnings just like any other company – by increasing revenues, lowering costs and generating new business opportunities. REITs often seek revenue growth through increased rents and higher occupancy levels of their properties.

Rents generally rise as the economy expands and demand for space increases, assuming the supply of new space coming onto the market doesn’t outpace demand. Skilled real estate owners can increase low occupancy rates in underutilized properties by upgrading the quality of facilities, improving building services and more effectively marketing a property.

Other ways REITs grow earnings are through acquiring and developing new properties or redeveloping existing properties, as long as the returns from these investments are greater than their associated financing costs.

Please submit your question using this form.

Email Alerts


Subscribe to get the latest investor news and information delivered directly to your inbox.

  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Preferences

Copyright SITE Centers Corp. 2023. All Rights Reserved.

* Market Data powered by QuoteMedia. Terms of Use.