On August 3, Alexander’s Inc. (NYSE:ALX) reported second-quarter net income of $155.4 million, more than 25 times what it earned in the same quarter of 2025. That kind of jump looks like a breakout for a real estate investment trust that owns just four properties in New York City. But most of the gain came from selling one building, not from renting out the other three. Strip that sale away and a smaller, quieter story about the underlying business starts to show through.
The Hidden Value Surfaces
The number REIT investors actually track quarter to quarter is funds from operations, and it moved in the right direction. Second quarter FFO rose to $15.5 million, or $3.02 per diluted share, up from $14.8 million, or $2.88 per share, in the same period last year. Revenue climbed too, from $51.6 million to $54.7 million. Neither move is dramatic, but both point to a portfolio generating more cash from its core operations than it did a year ago.
The bigger signal sits inside the net income line. The sale of the Rego Park I property produced a $148.0 million gain, or $28.81 per diluted share, on its own. That is not a paper adjustment. It is cash realized from a single asset that had been sitting on the books at historical cost, and it says something about how much value Alexander’s four-property portfolio may be carrying that never shows up until a building actually changes hands.
The Six-Month Slowdown
The six-month numbers tell a different story than the quarter did. FFO for the first half of 2026 fell to $28.9 million, or $5.63 per diluted share, down from $35.6 million, or $6.93 per share, in the first half of 2025. That happened even as six-month revenue edged up from $106.5 million to $108.1 million. A REIT’s recurring earnings power moving lower while its top line moves higher is the kind of split that undercuts a clean growth narrative.
It also means the headline net income figures for both the quarter and the half are now dominated by one transaction. The $148.0 million Rego Park I gain accounts for the overwhelming majority of the $155.4 million in quarterly net income and the $160.0 million in six-month net income. That kind of gain does not repeat every period, and once it rolls out of the year-over-year comparison, reported earnings will look a lot more like the FFO trend, which has been softer than a year ago through the first half of 2026.
What Wall Street Sees
The number of hedge funds holding Alexander’s rose from 12 to 14 quarter over quarter, which points to accumulating rather than departing institutional interest. Short interest sits at 13.73% of the float, a level that signals a real bear camp is positioned against the stock rather than just a handful of hedges. Funds adding to positions while short sellers hold a double-digit stake means the two sides of this trade are not reading the same numbers the same way.
Two Numbers, One Question
This quarter contains two true stories. One is a REIT whose quarterly FFO and revenue both grew. The other is a REIT whose six-month FFO fell and whose net income now rests almost entirely on a single property sale. Whether the second quarter’s improvement marks a turn or just a good three months is the open question the six-month decline leaves unanswered. Rising hedge fund interest sitting alongside heavy short positioning shows the market itself hasn’t settled on an answer either.
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