Q2 2025 CareTrust REIT Inc Earnings Call
Speaker #4: Thank you for standing by. My name is Janice, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everybody to the CareTrust REIT Q2 2025 operating results conference call.
Speaker #4: All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad.
Speaker #4: If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Lauren Beale, CareTrust Chief Accounting Officer.
Speaker #4: You may begin.
Speaker #5: Thank you, and welcome to CareTrust REIT's second quarter 2025 earnings call. We will make forward-looking statements today based on management's current expectations, including statements regarding future financial performance, dividends, acquisitions, investments, financing plans, business strategies, and growth prospects.
Speaker #5: These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ from our expectations. These risks are discussed in CareTrust REIT's most recent Form 10-K and 10-Q filings with the SEC.
Speaker #5: We do not undertake a duty to update or revise these statements except as required by law. During the call, the company will reference non-GAAP metrics such as EBITDA, FFO, and FAD.
Speaker #5: A reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures is available in our earnings press release and Q2 2025 non-GAAP reconciliation, which are available on the Investor Relations section of CareTrust's website at www.caretrustreit.com.
Speaker #5: A replay of this call will also be available on the website for a limited period. On the call this morning are David Sedgwick, President and Chief Executive Officer; William Wagner, Chief Financial Officer; James Callister, Chief Investment Officer; and Derek Bunker, SVP Strategy and Investor Relations.
Speaker #5: I'll now turn the call over to Dave Sedgwick, CareTrust REIT's President and CEO. Dave?
Speaker #6: Well, good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us. Before I share the highlights for the quarter and the many good things yet to come, I think it's important to take a minute to step back and put our growth over the past two years in context.
Speaker #6: In the second quarter since, we closed on approximately $1.1 billion of investments, highlighted, of course, by our acquisition of CareREIT and entry into the UK Care Home market, closed in May.
Speaker #6: Over the past 18 months, we have deployed roughly $2.7 billion in investments, eclipsing the total amount we invested in the prior eight years since our inception.
Speaker #6: During our Q4 call, when we were celebrating a record $1.5 billion of investments in 2024, which is seven times the amount of our annual average, I mentioned how we would not rest on that record.
Speaker #6: But we would instead continue full steam ahead. Well, we quickly followed through and closed our first M&A deal in the CareREIT acquisition in May, diversifying our operator bench, our asset type mix, our payer mix, our geographic concentration, and providing a compelling exposure to a key market in which we expect to grow simultaneously with our U.S. opportunity set.
Speaker #6: Again, the team did not stop there. Since closing on CareREIT, we have closed on another nearly $220 million of investments. Yesterday, we announced a reloaded pipeline of approximately $600 million that James will discuss in his update.
Speaker #6: Now, the results of this record pace of investments are that total revenues are up 63.3% in the second quarter over the prior year quarter. Normalized FFO per share is up about 19%, and normalized FAD per share is up about 16%, each over the same period.
Speaker #6: We've also increased our quarterly dividend by 15.5% year-over-year while maintaining a comfortable payout ratio. Turning to an update on the quarter, the integration of the CareREIT assets is off to a strong start.
Speaker #6: James has promised not to use the word "plucky" again in this, and I promise I won't use a British accent. But I will say we are chuffed with the operator relationships that we've stepped into and have already game planned with many of them how to grow together in the near future.
Speaker #6: We continue to introduce ourselves to the market and expect more care home opportunities to find their way into our pipeline over time. At the end of June, we acquired CareREIT's former external manager and began the integration of those employees into CareTrust.
Speaker #6: They're a talented group that brings to the table experience with these assets and the market, and deep relationships with operators and other key industry participants.
Speaker #6: And we believe a CareTrust UK team will help us source, identify, underwrite, and close on growth opportunities there. Well, it's fun to celebrate all of our recent investments, and it's important to highlight what makes us so excited about the near- and long-term future prospects. I'll reiterate what I conveyed on the last few earnings calls.
Speaker #6: We are not done. We very much feel like we're still in startup mode and hungry to prove ourselves and produce sustainable FFO per share growth over many years to come.
Speaker #6: In order to keep the flywheel ripping, along with investing in real assets, we've been investing in the people and systems to support their integration.
Speaker #6: And our future growth. In addition to building out our UK presence, we've added key professionals here in the U.S. Across tax, finance, investments, and asset management.
Speaker #6: That positions us to grow in more markets, in more diversified ways. Our expanded team is stronger, smarter, and hungrier than ever before. This behind-the-scenes investment in the team, like our investments in real assets, will continue to pay off over time.
Speaker #6: With that, I'll hand it off to James for a report on investment activity and the acquisition landscape.
Speaker #7: Thanks, Dave. Good morning, everyone. During the second quarter, in addition to closing the CareREIT acquisition in May, we completed the acquisition of its external manager and began the process of welcoming those employees to CareTrust.
Speaker #7: As Dave mentioned, leveraging this platform allows us to focus simultaneously on our growth in both the U.S. and U.K., across skilled nursing, seniors' housing, and care home asset types.
Speaker #7: Also, in the quarter, through a joint venture where we provided approximately 95% of the total required investment capital, we closed on an approximately $146 million portfolio of 10 skilled nursing assets in the Pacific Northwest, leased to two high-caliber existing operators.
Speaker #7: These are quality assets that we're very excited about, and it's a testament to the hard work of our team up and down the organization to close on a transaction of this size immediately on the heels of the CareREIT deal.
Speaker #7: And in the rest of the quarter since, we've deployed approximately $110 million in additional capital across skilled nursing real estate acquisitions, preferred equity investments, and a mortgage loan.
Speaker #7: These deals bring our total investments closed year-to-date to approximately $1.2 billion. As we look forward, our investment pipeline remains strong, sitting at approximately $600 million.
Speaker #7: The quoted pipeline includes some singles and doubles, as well as some mid- to large-sized portfolio transactions. It primarily consists of skilled nursing facilities but also includes a couple of seniors' housing deals and a UK care home opportunity.
Speaker #7: Please remember that when we quote our pipe, we only include deals that we have a reasonable level of confidence that we can lock up and close within the next 12 months.
Speaker #7: We continue to see a robust pipeline of both broker-marketed deals and off-market opportunities sourced through our operator network and other relationships. The flow of prospects spans skilled nursing and seniors' housing assets, both triple net and shop, with a measured yet meaningful uptick in overall volume.
Speaker #7: At the same time, we're building our pipeline in the UK. We are actively evaluating potential acquisitions across the pond and regularly meeting with established and new operators who value a capital partner like CareTrust in a capital-tight environment.
Speaker #7: The UK care home sector represents an additional avenue of accretive growth where our rigorous underwriting, operational expertise, strong balance sheet, advantaged cost of capital, and proven certainty of closing position us to win.
Speaker #7: Importantly, our pursuit of UK transactions will not slow our primary focus on sourcing and executing high-return real estate acquisitions in the States. As evidenced by around $215 million in U.S. investments closed post-CareREIT acquisition and by our reloaded pipeline.
Speaker #7: And with that, I'll turn it over to Bill.
Speaker #8: Thanks, James. For the quarter, normalized FFO increased 58.2% over the prior year quarter to $83.1 million, and normalized FAD increased by 53.9% to $83.1 million.
Speaker #8: On a per-share basis, normalized FFO increased 7 cents, or 19.4%, to 43 cents per share, and normalized FAD increased 6 cents, or 16.2%, to 43 cents per share.
Speaker #8: During the second quarter, we raised approximately $355 million in cash from equity sales under our ATM and closed on a $500 million term loan.
Speaker #8: These proceeds allowed us to fund investments, including a portion of the UK, to pay off our revolver balance as of June 30th, and subsequent to quarter-end, pay off approximately $260 million of debt we assumed as part of the CareREIT acquisition.
Speaker #8: Also, after quarter-end, we entered into an interest rate swap to fix the rate on our new term loan for a period of three years, with a go-forward all-in rate of 4.6%. This brings our fixed-rate debt as a percentage of total debt to 93%.
Speaker #8: In yesterday's press release, we raised guidance for this year to $1.77 to $1.79 for both normalized FFO and normalized FAD per share. This guidance includes all investments closed to date, a diluted weighted average share count of 195.3 million shares, and also relies on the following six assumptions.
Speaker #8: One: no additional investments, nor any further debt or equity issuances this year. Two: CPI rent escalations have 2.5 percent. Our total cash rental revenues for the year are projected to be approximately $338 million.
Speaker #8: Not included in this number is straight-line rent of $8 million, the amortization of lease and tangibles of $2 million, and interest income from financing receivables of $12 million.
Speaker #8: Four: interest income of approximately $87 million, which is made up of $80 million from our loan portfolio and $7 million from cash invested in money market funds.
Speaker #8: Five, interest expense of approximately $44 million, which includes roughly $5 million of amortization of deferred financing fees. And six, G&A expense of approximately $48 to $52 million, which includes about $12 million of stock compensation.
Speaker #8: Lastly, our liquidity continues to remain strong. In addition to $65 million of cash on hand, we have $1.14 billion available under our revolver. Despite our record pace of investments, we continue to maintain low leverage with a net debt to annualized normalized EBITDA of two times. Our net debt to enterprise value was 12.3% as of quarter-end, and we achieved a fixed-charge coverage ratio of 8.2 times.
Speaker #8: And with that, I'll turn it back to Dave.
Speaker #6: Thank you, Bill. I'm super excited about the performance and I'm super grateful and proud of the team for what we've been able to accomplish over the last couple of years and last quarter.
Speaker #6: Happy to take your questions.
Speaker #2: Thank you. At this time, I would like to remind everyone that in order to ask questions, please press the stars and the number one on your telephone keypad. We will pause for just a moment to file the Q&A roster.
Speaker #2: Your first question comes from the line of John Kalachowsky from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Speaker #9: Good afternoon. Thank you, team. Maybe if we could just start on the pipeline, would you mind kind of talking about the composition of that?
Speaker #9: I'm curious how much of a contribution the UK is already starting to see, and if you're seeing that ramping. And then maybe part two of that would be: what percentage of that is shop, if any?
Speaker #9: And Dave, you get bonus points for using a British accent.
Speaker #10: I'm going to defer to James to answer this one, and we'll see if he uses the accent or not. We'll side bet on that.
Speaker #7: I’ve got to be true to myself, so I'm just going to be me, you know? The pipeline, John, the majority of it is still U.S. skilled nursing. The remainder of it is a combination of U.S. seniors and U.K.
Speaker #7: There's definitely UK transaction in there, and that ramp continues to grow. As we continue to engage in and develop relationships with the broker and operator community, I think that there is a component of the seniors' housing in the US that does consist of shop.
Speaker #7: You know, we have 12 months to realize on that, but we are continuing to actively look at shops and try to source the right deals when we find them.
Speaker #10: That's helpful. And then, of the shop deals that you're looking at, could you kind of talk about maybe strategically the ones that you're interested in, whether it's Cork or Plus or Value Add, and the kind of tier markets you are looking for?
Speaker #10: I'm just kind of curious how you're ing yourself versus peers.
Speaker #11: Yeah. I mean, I think we're pretty open. John, I think we're really focused on the right operator management relationships based on the deals that come in and looking at can we really find an operator or manager solution that we really like and vet and get comfortable with.
Speaker #11: I think we're pretty open on the deals. I think we're going to be more competitive in some than others. So, you know, I think we're really looking at everything.
Speaker #11: Focusing on the right operator manager solution for that deal, and focusing on the ones that you know maybe others you know will be more competitive than we would.
Speaker #11: But focusing on the ones we feel are in our lane and that we can source the right operator for.
Speaker #6: Very pful. Thank ou.
Speaker #12: Thanks, John.
Speaker #2: Our next question is coming from the line of Pharrell Granats of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Speaker #13: Hello. Good afternoon. This is Pharrell Granats. I also just wanted to dig in a little bit deeper into what you're seeing in your pipeline, you know, as some of the overhang when it came to SNIFs has kind of lifted slightly with the passing of the reconciliation bill.
Speaker #13: I was wondering if you've seen anything else come into the market more, or if you've seen greater competition for assets of both SNFs, senior housing, or even SHOP as you're coming to the table.
Speaker #14: You know, Pharrell, I I don't think we've seen a meaningful uptick or impact from the big, beautiful bill on deal flow at all. I think that you still see regional owner-operators and mom-and-pops starting to bring you know assets to the market as their recovery is kind of you know they've made most of their way through their recovery following you ow COVID and as that has stabilized a lot of them bringing more stuff to bear and and to the market.
Speaker #14: But I haven't seen really any impact from the big, beautiful bill. I think that deal flow is consistent; it's probably getting a little uptick recently.
Speaker #14: I think that it's pretty much the same buyers at the table in the skilled nursing market as it's been for a while. I would say on seniors, maybe a few more entrants on the private equity side and private money side, but still primarily the publics and the known private equity groups have been there for a while now.
Speaker #13: Great. Thank you. And my second question is about the potential synergies, as you were just mentioning, regarding the integration of the CRT team. What could we possibly see, especially given that your G&A ticked up slightly, and with the expectation of that going forward? What could that turn into even in out years?
Speaker #14: Yeah. Hey, Pharrell. This is Derek. I think, first of all, it’s going really well. We’re excited about those teams, and we felt like with the record pace of investments in real assets over the past 18 months, it was important to make sure we build a team around it to take care of it.
Speaker #14: And to position ourselves for that diversified growth across markets and kind of future opportunities. So, I think you'll see that continue to bear through the rest of the year.
Speaker #14: but we feel like we've made a lot of headway. We've, at the end of June, we we brought in those UK team already and we made it you know quite a bit of investment in the US team as well.
Speaker #14: So we may not be done, but we've made a lot of headway. We're really excited about the progress so far and feel like we've positioned ourselves well to support that growth.
Speaker #13: Okay. Thank you so much.
Speaker #12: Thanks, Pharrell.
Speaker #2: The next question is coming from the line of Michael Carroll. From RBC Capital Markets, please go ahead.
Speaker #15: Yeah, thanks. I guess, James, I want to quickly touch on the pipeline where you said that there were a few seniors' housing deals. I mean, are those deals shop deals, or are they just traditional triple net lease type transactions?
Speaker #14: There's some of both in there. Like, and then I owe, like how can you talk about the REDIA platform that you've been kind of looking to get into?
Speaker #14: I mean, how's the market looking? Are we any closer to some type of transaction on that side or anything interesting out there to update you on?
Speaker #10: I would say that with respect to REDIA, what we've been seeing for, I guess, about the last 18 months is still very true, which is, like James said, we're looking at a range of opportunities.
Speaker #10: A range of entry points from large deals that would come with a team and platform, all the way down to onesies, twosies, that would be a more modest entry.
Speaker #10: And we're going to be opportunistic. And we don't feel any, you know, pressure to be fast about it. We want to get it right. And I think James's answer to the previous question was right on, where it's less about the size of the deal for Shop, and it's all about the operator.
Speaker #10: When you look at our lease coverage, it's so high relatively speaking, and that's based on matching great opportunities with great operators. If we can stay true to that, with respect to SHOP as well, then all of our energy can really be focused on growth.
Speaker #10: And and so I'll say we we continue to look at at the field and we'll be opportunistic. And I'm I'm I'd be really surprised if we didn't get something done with respect to shop within the next you know 12 months.
Speaker #15: All right, thanks, Dave. That's helpful. Then I guess last for me is, has the competitive landscape made it more difficult, I guess specifically on the seniors' housing side?
Speaker #15: I own cap rates for SNFs rarely change. I'm assuming that that's still kind of holding true, but are you seeing any type of compression on the seniors' housing side that might make it more difficult?
Speaker #14: I wouldn't say to make it more difficult. You just have a much bigger range in the seniors' living world of cap rates, depending on location, the quality type, the newness of the asset, and a whole host of other things.
Speaker #14: So you see just a different, wider range of cap rates than you see on the skilled side. I don't think anything that makes it particularly difficult.
Speaker #14: I mean, as you get into the lower cap rates, we may not be as competitive as others, but I don't think there's anything that makes it particularly difficult.
Speaker #14: There are more prospective buyers, but I think with the right opportunity, when we have the right operator, you know we can be pretty gritty and still compete.
Speaker #15: Okay. Great. Thank ou.
Speaker #12: Thanks, Mike.
Speaker #2: Your next question is coming from the line of Audit Fiji from Beard. Please go ahead.
Speaker #16: Hi. And thanks for taking my question. You know, first, on the new investment grade rating, can you speak on what you would do for the next issuance, whether private placement or another term loan?
Speaker #16: And when that would be?
Speaker #14: Yeah. Look, it's Bill. The next issuance, if we did a bond offering, we would probably wait until we get investment grade from all the different agencies.
Speaker #14: And it all depends on the size, but it all depends on the investment pipeline and what we're closing on at the time. But with equity prices so nice right now, that's a really good way to fund our investments.
Speaker #15: Yeah, it makes sense. And my second question for you is, are you thinking of opportunities with new operators? Are you looking at new operators, and would you consider financing deals with them or buying assets right away to start relationships? Just any commentary on new operators would be appreciated.
Speaker #14: Yeah. Look, I think we spent quite a bit of time developing a bench of new operators, and that's been the case from day one and continues to be the case.
Speaker #14: I think as we continue to execute on this pipe, you will see a a you'll continue to see a combination of growing with existing operators and bringing on some new ones.
Speaker #15: All right. That's it for E. Thank you.
Speaker #14: Thanks a lot, Alex.
Speaker #2: Okay. Our next question is coming from the line of Omatayo Oksanya of Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Speaker #16: We don't hear a question.
Speaker #15: Dave?
Speaker #14: Yep. Yeah.
Speaker #7: Hey. Sorry about that. So, most of my questions have been answered, but I'm just curious: your thoughts on the overall—I know you talked a little bit about the big, beautiful bill already—but like the overall regulatory backdrop? I think, again, things look like they've gone pretty well from a Medicaid and Medicare perspective this year.
Speaker #7: But if you're kind of talking about next year, where you potentially have, you know, increased budget deficits because of the one beautiful bill or because of the one big, beautiful bill, does that put additional pressure potentially on what reimbursement could look like next year?
Speaker #7: Do we start to kind of have the word "sequestration" thrown around a little bit next year?
Speaker #10: Well, I suppose it remains to be seen. I think what we're really encouraged by, though, is that when there was so much talk and hand-wringing over the risk associated with Medicaid, in particular, what we saw was, in fact, that Medicaid, particularly for skilled nursing and senior care, has broad bipartisan support.
Speaker #10: Both at the federal and state level. And if there are some pressures more locally, I think that that reality will continue to defend the Medicaid rate for senior care and prioritize it above maybe other Medicaid participants that maybe are younger, able-bodied, that sort of ing.
Speaker #15: Gotcha. Okay. Thank you.
Speaker #10: All right, Tanya. Thanks.
Speaker #2: Your next question is coming from the line of Austin Wirchman from KeyBank Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Speaker #16: Thanks. Hello, everybody.
Speaker #10: Hey, Austin.
Speaker #16: Just honing in again a little bit on sort of the relationship side. Are the shop operators you’re speaking to mostly relationships you’ve had a track record with?
Speaker #16: And would that sort of be the initial foray or your preference, I guess? Or, you know, similarly, are you casting a much wider net now as you are, you know, across the skilled side?
Speaker #10: I would say that we're we're casting a wider net with respect to shop. And these are these are in in some respects, new relationships to CareTrust, but in some respects, longstanding relationships with individuals at CareTrust.
Speaker #10: So I think that we're going to be spending a lot of time on that front, making sure that we've fully vetted these operators because, you know, the economics are different when it's a shop environment.
Speaker #10: And we want to make sure we get that right.
Speaker #15: Have you spoken to any of your existing relationships within the portfolio about potential conversion opportunities from the triple net structure to the REDIA structure?
Speaker #10: No, that's not our focus. Our focus is really growing that space to Novo.
Speaker #15: Understood. That's pful. And then just one more for me. I just would love to hear an update. You know, you touched a little bit on the integration, but would would like to hear a little bit on some of the synergy side, potentially, you ow if if you could provide a figure, you know how far along are you in sort of realizing some of ose synergies and just any potential upside to maybe your initial thoughts now that ou've had some time to you know digest the portfolio and and integrate some of the team?
Speaker #15: Thanks.
Speaker #10: Hey, Austin. It's Derek. Yeah, so far, so good. I'm really excited about the team. I think as we have continued to dig in and go through the process, our confidence in our forecasts and what we thought we could accomplish together has only increased.
Speaker #10: I think last time we had signaled that they were on a run rate of about $10 million, and our synergies were about 50% of that.
Speaker #10: That would probably kick in mostly in Q1 next year. I think we're still on track with all that, and it's looking solid.
Speaker #15: Thanks, everybody.
Speaker #10: Thanks, Austin.
Speaker #2: I will now turn the call back over to David Sedgwick, CEO, for closing remarks. Please go ahead.
Speaker #16: Okay. Thank you. I really appreciate everybody's time and interest, and I wish you a nice end to the week. Thank you.