Buy These 3 Stocks While They're Still Cheap
The last year has been brutal for much of the stock market. Rising interest rates and uncertain macroeconomic conditions were especially hard on real estate investment trusts (REITs). Since these atypical stocks rely heavily on debt to invest in real estate and real estate-related securities, interest-rate increases negatively impact their cost of borrowing.
The broader REIT index tracked by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) shows that publicly traded REITs are down 25% in the last 12 months. That's a much larger dip than the 11.6% drop the S&P 500 experienced over that same period.
While many real estate stocks are making a comeback, a few top REITs are still trading at relatively cheap prices when comparing valuations. These include Stag Industrial (NYSE: STAG), Apple Hospitality REIT (NYSE: APLE), and Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE: FRT). All three are trading at a price-to-funds from operations (FFO) ratio of 15 or less. This metric, which is the REIT equivalent of a price-to-earnings ratio, is much less than the S&P 500 average P/E of 20, indicating that their current prices are a steal.
Source Fool.com
