Funds from operations (FFO) is the term that investors use to describe the cash flow of a real estate company or a real estate investment trust (REIT). [1] FFO is a performance indicator created by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) that is recognized by the SEC to be the standard non-GAAP gauge of financial performance for the real estate sector.
Analysts calculate the standard version of FFO by adding amortization and depreciation to net income, and subtracting any gains made on the sale of assets. [2] There are other forms of FFO that the SEC requires real estate companies to report such as the adjusted FFO, company FFO, and others. [3]
No matter the type of FFO they use, public companies are required to disclose their FFO on their income statement. Investors can use the FFO to determine the financial performance of a real estate company. Unlike other accounting methods, the FFO attempts to remove distortion caused by traditional GAAP accounting methods. Using the FFO allows companies to more accurately state their performance. Often, the FFO is divided by a per-share basis for securities that are publicly traded. Investors frequently utilize the FFO per-share ratio much like they would utilize the EPS of a company. [4]
International Financial Reporting Standards, commonly called IFRS, are accounting standards issued by the IFRS Foundation and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). They constitute a standardised way of describing the company's financial performance and position so that company financial statements are understandable and comparable across international boundaries. They are particularly relevant for companies with shares or securities publicly listed.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is a private standard-setting body whose primary purpose is to establish and improve Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) within the United States in the public's interest. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) designated the FASB as the organization responsible for setting accounting standards for public companies in the U.S. The FASB replaced the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA) Accounting Principles Board (APB) on July 1, 1973. The FASB is run by the nonprofit Financial Accounting Foundation.
A real estate investment trust is a company that owns, and in most cases operates, income-producing real estate. REITs own many types of commercial real estate, including office and apartment buildings, studios, warehouses, hospitals, shopping centers, hotels and commercial forests. Some REITs engage in financing real estate.
In financial accounting, a cash flow statement, also known as statement of cash flows, is a financial statement that shows how changes in balance sheet accounts and income affect cash and cash equivalents, and breaks the analysis down to operating, investing and financing activities. Essentially, the cash flow statement is concerned with the flow of cash in and out of the business. As an analytical tool, the statement of cash flows is useful in determining the short-term viability of a company, particularly its ability to pay bills. International Accounting Standard 7 is the International Accounting Standard that deals with cash flow statements.
Net asset value (NAV) is the value of an entity's assets minus the value of its liabilities, often in relation to open-end, mutual funds, hedge funds, and venture capital funds. Shares of such funds registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are usually bought and redeemed at their net asset value. It is also a key figure with regard to hedge funds and venture capital funds when calculating the value of the underlying investments in these funds by investors. This may also be the same as the book value or the equity value of a business. Net asset value may represent the value of the total equity, or it may be divided by the number of shares outstanding held by investors, thereby representing the net asset value per share.
A special-purpose entity is a legal entity created to fulfill narrow, specific or temporary objectives. SPEs are typically used by companies to isolate the firm from financial risk. A formal definition is "The Special Purpose Entity is a fenced organization having limited predefined purposes and a legal personality".
An investment club is a group of individuals who meet for the purpose of pooling money and investing; members typically meet periodically to make investment decisions as a group through a voting process and recording of minutes, or gather information and perform investment transactions outside the group. In the US the upper limit for the value of an investment club's worth is $25m. There is no lower limit. Investment clubs provide members a means to learn about markets, while meeting and working with people who have similar interests.
An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in holding, managing and investing securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Investment companies invest money on behalf of their clients who, in return, share in the profits and losses.
Real estate investing involves the purchase, management and sale or rental of real estate for profit. Someone who actively or passively invests in real estate is called a real estate entrepreneur or a real estate investor. In contrast, real estate development is building, improving or renovating real estate.
Private money investing is the reverse side of hard money lending, a type of financing in which a borrower receives funds based on the value of real estate owned by the borrower. Private Money Investing (“PMI”) concerns the source of the funds lent to hard money borrowers, as well as other considerations made from the investor's side of the equation.
Private equity real estate is a term used in investment finance to refer to a specific subset of the real estate investment asset class. Private equity real estate refers to one of the four quadrants of the real estate capital markets, which include private equity, private debt, public equity and public debt.
A Business Development Company ("BDC") is a form of unregistered closed-end investment company in the United States that invests in small and mid-sized businesses. This form of company was created by the US Congress in 1980 in the amendments to the Investment Company Act of 1940. Publicly filing firms may elect regulation as BDCs if they meet certain requirements of the Investment Company Act.
In U.S. business and financial accounting, income is generally defined by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board as: Revenues – Expenses; however, many people use it as shorthand for net income, which is the amount of money that a company earns after covering all of its costs as well as taxes.
Regulation S-X is a prescribed regulation in the United States of America that lays out the specific form and content of financial reports, specifically the financial statements of public companies. It is cited as 17 C.F.R. Part 210; the name of the part is "Form and Content of and Requirements for Financial Statements, Securities Act of 1933, Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, Investment Company Act of 1940, Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975".
An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These advantages include an ability to:
In finance, the notion of traditional investments refers to putting money into well-known assets with the expectation of capital appreciation, dividends, and interest earnings. Traditional investments are to be contrasted with alternative investments.
National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (Nareit) is a Washington, D.C.-based association representing industries that include real estate investment trusts (REITs), mortgage REITs (mREITs) REITs traded on major stock exchanges, public non-listed REITs, and private REITs. Nareit publicly trades real estate in the U.S. real estate and capital markets. It is a publicly traded organization that deals with real estate in the U.S. capital markets. It also serves as an informational resource for REIT policymakers.
Nicholas Sloan "Nick" Schorsch (born March 2, 1961) is an American millionaire entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. Schorsch is the chairman, CEO, and co-founder of the investment services firm VEREIT.
Fundrise is a Washington, D.C.-based financial technology company founded in 2010 that operates an online investment platform. Fundrise has been labeled as the first company to successfully crowdfund investment into the real estate market.
Hamid Moghadam is an Iranian-American business executive and philanthropist. In 2011, Moghadam orchestrated the combination between AMB, a firm he co-founded in 1983, and ProLogis to create Prologis, the largest logistics real estate company in the world. Moghadam currently serves as Prologis Chairman and CEO, with Prologis operating as a global logistics real estate investment trust (REIT) and S&P 100 company.