Is it Wise to Invest in Public Storage (PSA)?

LRT Capital Management, an investment management firm, published its second-quarter 2022 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. As of July 1st, 2022, LRT’s net exposure was approximately 77.74%, and its beta-adjusted exposure was 50.7%. The fund currently has 57 long positions with the top 10 accounting for approximately 40.7% of its total long exposure. Try to spend some time taking a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to be informed about their best picks for 2022.

In its Q2 2022 investor letter, LRT Capital Management mentioned Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 1972, Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) is a Glendale, California-based international self-storage company with a $54.3 billion market capitalization. Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) delivered a -17.51% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 0.14%. The stock closed at $308.96 per share on July 18, 2022.

Here is what LRT Capital Management has to say about Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:

Public Storage is the largest self-storage REITs. The company acquires and develops self-storage facilities and currently owns or manages over 2,7000 properties and is extremely well diversified across the United States. The company was founded in 1972 and IPO-ed in 1980. We have long admired the company’s ability to grow and maintain high occupancy. We purchased our position after a recent pullback in the company’s share price. We also hold a small position in Extra Space Storage Inc., for the same reasons.

The business is largely recession proof with predictable revenues that grow every year due to rent increases, operating efficiencies and new sites. Typical reasons for using a self-storage facility include deaths, divorces, downsizing as well as birth and marriages – things that happen all the time, regardless of the economy. The company can continue to grow through consolidation as the self-storage market is still dominated by mom-n-pop operators. By acquiring underperforming assets and improving operations the company creates incremental shareholder value.

In densely populated areas land is scarce and land values are high. High value locations are limited in major metropolitan areas and cannot easily be acquired by an incumbent. This is a simple and seemingly boring business that takes decades to build and that cannot be disrupted by tech companies. We wrote about Public Storage in detail in our March 2022 letter.”

Roll up door, Door, Storage

Photo by Adam Winger on Unsplash

Our calculations show that Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) fell short and didn’t make it on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) was in 35 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2022, compared to 33 funds in the previous quarter. Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) delivered a -24.57% return in the past 3 months.

In May 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) in another article. You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2022 Q2 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.