Cousins Enhances Unsecured Credit Limit, Boosts Financial Flexibility

Cousins Properties CUZ recently announced that it has closed on a new five-year, $1.2 billion unsecured credit facility, replacing its current arrangement, scheduled to mature in April 2027. The move enhanced its borrowing capacity by $200 million.

The company also added two-month extension options to each of its existing $400 million and $100 million unsecured term loans.

These refinancing actions lowered borrowing costs, with the all-in spread reduced by 15 basis points on the revolving credit facility and the $400 million term loan, and by 30 basis points on the $100 million term loan. The revolving facility now carries a spread of 72.5 basis points over SOFR, while the term loans are priced at 80 basis points, with other covenants largely unchanged.

The strong investor interest in the above refinancing transactions highlights continued demand for high-quality offices. The above upsizing boosts Cousins Properties’ financial flexibility. The extended maturities of the assumed debt will help the company improve its maturity profile and enjoy greater liquidity for executing its Sun Belt lifestyle office strategy.

Last month, Cousins Properties announced that it secured a 116,000-square-foot long-term lease with Oracle ORCL at its Neuhoff mixed-use development in Nashville, TN, marking a notable step in its leasing momentum. This deal is meaningful as it brings in a high-credit, technology tenant and strengthens cash flow visibility.

Over the past month, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have declined 4.4%, which is narrower than the industry's drop of 7.2%.

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Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader REIT sector are Chatham Lodging Trust REIT CLDT, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and Terreno Realty TRNO, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CLDT’s 2026 FFO per share is pegged at $1.20, which indicates year-over-year growth of 17.7%.

The consensus estimate for TRNO’s full-year FFO per share is pinned at $2.79, which calls for a marginal increase from the year-ago period.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO) — a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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