QTS Realty Q4 FFO Rises; Begins 8.7 Mln Share Public Offering, Lifts Dividend

(RTTNews) - QTS Realty Trust, Inc. (QTS) reported fourth-quarter net income attributable to the company of $4.63 million or $0.16 per share, up from $3.60 million in the year-ago period.

Operating FFO for the quarter rose to $20.42 million or $0.55 per share from $16.43 million in the year-ago period. On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.54 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Total revenues for the quarter grew 26 percent to $59.56 million from $47.43 million in the year-ago period. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $59.64 million for the quarter.

QTS Realty said it has rescheduled its fourth quarter and year end 2014 conference call. The company will conduct the conference call and webcast on Monday, February 23, 2015 at 7:30 a.m. Central time/8:30 a.m. Eastern time.

For fiscal 2015, QTS Realty forecast operating FFO of $2.00 to $2.24 per share. The company continues to anticipate full-year core revenue growth, excluding acquisitions, in the mid to high teens, which ramps during the year, and annual rental churn of 5 percent to 8 percent.

Street expects the company to earn $2.32 per share for the year on 20 percent increase in revenues to $260.23 million.

QTS Realty Trust said it has commenced an underwritten public offering of 8.70 million shares of its Class A common stock by it and a selling stockholder. The company is offering 4.35 million shares and GA QTS Interholdco, LLC, the selling stockholder and an affiliate of General Atlantic LLC, is offering another 4.35 million shares.

The selling stockholder has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an aggregate of up to an additional 1.305 million shares of common stock at the public offering price.

The company intends to use the net proceeds of the offering of shares by the company to repay amounts outstanding under its unsecured revolving credit facility and for general corporate purposes. The company will not receive any proceeds from the offering of shares by the selling stockholder.

Further, QTS Realty's board of directors authorized a cash dividend of $0.32 per share on its common stock for the first quarter of 2015. The dividend rate represents a 10.3 percent increase over the 2014 quarterly per share dividend rate of $0.29 per share.

The dividend is payable on April 7, 2015 to common stockholders of record at the close of business on March 20, 2015.