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Stratus Properties Inc. (STRS)

Q3 2022 Earnings Call· Mon, Nov 14, 2022

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day and welcome to the Stratus Properties Third Quarter 2022 Financial and Operational Conference Call. Earlier this morning, Stratus released its third quarter 2022 financial results and provided business updates, which are available on its website at stratusproperties.com. Following management’s remarks, we will host a question-and-answer session. Please note, this call is being recorded and will be available for replay on Stratus’s website through November 28th, 2022. Anyone listening to the tape replay should note, that all information presented is current as of today, November 14th, 2022 and should be considered valid only as of this date. As a reminder, today’s press release and certain comments that will be made on this call include forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated, projected or assumed in the forward-looking statements. Please review and refer to the cautionary language included in Stratus’s press release issued today and the risk factors described in Stratus’s 2021 Form 10-K and third quarter 2022 Form 10-Q, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected by Stratus. In addition, management will discuss earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization also referred to as EBITDA, which is a financial measure not recognized under US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles also referred to as GAAP. As required by SEC rules and regulations, this non-GAAP financial measure is reconciled to its most comparable GAAP financial measure in a supplemental schedule of Stratus’s press release issued today. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Beau Armstrong, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Stratus Properties.

Beau Armstrong

Analyst

Thank you for joining our conference call to review our third quarter 2022 financial and operational results. Our Chief Financial Officer, Erin Pickens is here with me today. To start off, I’d like to say how proud I am of our team’s hard work and execution in delivering another quarter of excellent operating performance. The successful sales of The Saint Mary and The Santal in 2021 and Block 21 earlier this year, were completed at an opportune time in the market and have generated $166 million of after-tax cash flow to Stratus. We also successfully completed our recent commitments to return cash to shareholders through our cash dividend and share repurchase program. Looking ahead to our promising development pipeline, we believe Stratus is well positioned to continue to maximize shareholder value. Last quarter, we announced our Board’s decision to deliver on our commitment to return cash to shareholders, reflecting competence in our business strategy and development program. Since then, we have returned significant cash to shareholders by paying out approximately $40 million or $4.67 per share in the special cash dividend on September 29th, and implementing a $10 million open market stock repurchase program in the third quarter. We continue to make progress with our buybacks toward that $10 million figure, and through November 4th, 2022, we have purchased approximately 105,000 shares for $2.6 million or about $25 per share. After the sale of Block 21, Stratus is focused on continuing to streamline its business. As you know, we announced last quarter that the Board remains determined to continue Stratus’s successful development program, focusing on pure residential and residential-centric mixed-use projects. Our team is knowledgeable about an experienced in Austin and other growing markets in Texas where we operate, including the Greater Houston area where we have several H-E-B mixed-use…

Erin Pickens

Analyst

Thank you, Beau. Today we issued our press release announcing our third quarter 2022 results. Before I begin I’d like to acknowledge the outstanding work of the Stratus team, which is enabling us to create value for our shareholders. As Beau mentioned, Stratus’s Board was pleased to declare a special cash dividend of $4.67 per share, totaling approximately $40 million, which was paid on September 29th to shareholders of record as of September ‘19. Our total stockholders’ equity increased to $219.8 million at September 30th, 2022, from $158.1 million at December 31st, 2021 and $98.9 million at December 31st, 2020, primarily as a result of gains realized on the sale of Block 21 in May 2022 and our sales at The Santal and the Saint Mary in December 2021 and January 2021, respectively. Revenues totaled $10 million in the third quarter of 2022, compared with $6.3 million in the third quarter of 2021. The increase in revenues is primarily a result of the sales of undeveloped properties in our real estate operations segment in the recent quarter, partially offset by a decrease in leasing revenue as a result of the sale of the Santal multi-family project in late 2021. Net loss attributable to common stockholders totaled $2.4 million or $0.29 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2022 compared to a net loss of $3.8 million or $0.46 per diluted share in the same quarter of last year. I will now provide a brief commentary on our reporting segments. Revenue from our real estate operations segment in the third quarter of 2022 totaled $6.9 million compared to $892,000 in the third quarter of 2021. Operating loss totaled $89,000 in the third quarter of this year, compared to an operating loss of $1.9 million in the third quarter of last…

Beau Armstrong

Analyst

Thank you, Erin. Our momentum and progress are only possible due to our fantastic team. I’ve said this before that Stratus benefits from our team’s knowledge, experience and relationships in the markets where we operate. And this positions us to capitalize on the continued growth in resulting housing demand in Austin and our other select Texas markets. We intend to continue to focus on the residential segment of the market and have a strong pipeline of well-located projects and fast-growing markets. Our timely sales for the Saint Mary, the Santal and Block 21 allowed us to significantly deleverage our company and return capital to our shareholders. Despite the current economic news, we remain optimistic about our pipeline of projects and have the resources necessary to bring them to fruition for the benefit of our partners and shareholders. At this time, I’ll ask the operator to open the line for questions. Thank you all very much for participating today.

Operator

Operator

Q - A -

Operator

Operator

Showing no – excuse me, showing no questions. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Beau Armstrong for any closing remarks.

Beau Armstrong

Analyst

Thank you, Gary. It’s all we have today.

Operator

Operator

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.