Community Healthcare Trust Incorporated (NYSE:CHCT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Alexander Goldfarb : Hey. Good morning, gentlemen. Obviously, please send best wishes for speedy recovery to Tim. Definitely need him back on the call and in the saddle. So two questions for you, Dave. The first is, obviously, everyone across all real estate sector is talking about transaction market, a big gap between buyers and sellers, frozen. Obviously, you guys made a lot of progress in the fourth quarter. It looks like you restocked the pipeline as well. But big picture, is the frozen transaction market, the gap between buyers and sellers that we hear about in other sectors, is that not really as applicable in your — what you’re targeting because of the nature of who the sellers are, often medical practices or people that you have presales with? Or should we think that even though you are restocking the pipeline, you still are finding the same issues that have befuddled other sectors in real estate as far as the gap between buyers and sellers?

Dave Dupuy : Yeah. Thanks for the question, Alex. I think it’s actually — it’s hard. We’re still looking at opportunities real-time, but we’re actually very encouraged to see a significant amount of activity continuing on the acquisition front. And I would say, you put it well. Our type of client tends to be smaller physician-based MOBs, physician practices, et cetera, and they’re less sensitive to that type of dynamic in the marketplace. And since we’re looking at opportunities in that 9% to 10% cap rate, we feel like the increase in rates is actually kind of a tailwind to our business because, all of a sudden, you’re not seeing these crazy transactions for those types of assets coming out. So anyway, we feel good about it and we’re seeing good activity.

Alexander Goldfarb : Okay. Second question is your comments — and forgive me, but it was — the way your comments on funding transactions came across, it seemed like you’re biased towards line of credit and secondary is ATM. But in the quarter, I think you issued at an average of $35. Obviously, your stock is up from there. So sort of curious, was it just random that you said line of credit first and then ATM? Or is there something about where you see the balance sheet that you prefer to use line of credit over ATM and especially given that your stock is up from where you issued in the quarter?

Dave Dupuy : Listen, we will continue to, as we said, access the ATM market. I think you’re reading too much into my comments. I think it was basically because I was talking about the fact that we just refinanced. And as you well know, when you do refinancing, it tends to be chunky. And we were opportunistic. Our banks were very supportive. And as a result, we upsized from the $125 million term loan to $150 million term loan. And so yeah, I think you’re reading into that. We will continue as we have in the past. It’s very important to us to be a low-levered business. I mean, that’s always been — that’s part of the DNA. It’s foundational to the company. And so I think you should expect us to be in the ATM over time and not just rely on the line of credit.

Alexander Goldfarb : And that’s why — and Dave, that’s why I asked because I know what your strategy is in general, and that’s why the comments, I wasn’t sure maybe I overread or not. But it sounds like I did, so I appreciate the clarification.

Dave Dupuy : Sure. Thanks, Alex.

Alexander Goldfarb: Thank you.

Operator: The next question is from Michael Lewis of Truist. Please go ahead/