RAIT Investment Trust (RAS)

All Comments on RAS

  • commenter
    Jimbo nd
    Jul 09 01:29 PM
    Newcastle, RAIT Financial: The Long Case for REITs [view article]
    So, how are your NCT and RAS buys working out for you? Looks like maybe the credit crisis really isn't "pretty much over." Reply
  • commenter
    copesetic
    Jun 04 12:45 PM
    Are the Commercial REITs Now Stabilizing? [view article]
    as long as they pay and I can exit +$ ,I'm a happy man.ABR is still down,but cfc,ras,afn have all paid and since the trades come from ira's
    no capital gains.I've loaded up the boat on ticc and afn again and will be holding my breath the next 2 weeks :)     Reply
  • commenter
    Jimbo nd
    May 18 12:33 AM
    Newcastle, RAIT Financial: The Long Case for REITs [view article]
    Nearby was a Levitz which is no more. Closer still is a Linens & Things that will close soon. In between is a Starbucks that is underperforming.

    Facing a rent increase, a neighbor's company sent much of their staff home (to work remotely, that is) and now occupies just half the space for even less than half the previous lease amount.

    These alone don't indicate a huge problem but they certainly appear as caution flags to my eyes.     Reply
  • commenter
    stretcho44
    May 17 03:18 PM
    Newcastle, RAIT Financial: The Long Case for REITs [view article]
    Fair Value adjustments for liabilities is an improvement that will soon be required of all U.S. companies the way it is for foreign companies today. FASB will soon require it. Migration has been underway since 2002.

    The application of Fair Value does not imply any need to repurchase the liabilities. It does however give a much better current value of the company when comparing asset values that are required to be marked to market value.

    The NCT $1.3bn from the sale of assets was used to pay down liabilities. The liabilities were not paid off at face value. The liabilities were paid off at market value.



    Reply
  • commenter
    Patrick1980S
    C
    May 15 08:47 PM
    My Website
    Newcastle, RAIT Financial: The Long Case for REITs [view article]
    I'm also a RAIT shareholder, and I was very encouraged by the conference call. RAIT is continuing to grow its portfolio through European deals and the operating earnings are more than covering the dividend. I think it will be another year before RAIT raises the dividend because they elected to treat the last dividend of 2007 as belonging to 2008 for tax purposes. Thus RAIT will need sufficient taxable income to cover effectively five dividend payments for 2008, which I can't really envision at this point. Reply
  • commenter
    The Devil
    is in the
    Details
    May 15 12:38 PM
    Newcastle, RAIT Financial: The Long Case for REITs [view article]
    Positive fair value adjustments based on declining prices for a company's liabilities implicitly assumes that a company has the capital (or access to it) to repurchase those liabilities at a discount to face and issue new liabilities at par. Last time I checked, NCT cut its dividend to preserve capital, sold $1.3bn of assets at a loss (including $700m+ of GSE paper), and made little new investments. If NCT could get funding to to repuchase its current debt obligations below par and issue new funding instruments and arb the spread, why is the company so focused on reducing its recourse funding rather than repurchasing its debt? Reply
  • commenter
    Uncommon
    Sense
    May 15 11:43 AM
    Newcastle, RAIT Financial: The Long Case for REITs [view article]
    Devil, you should listen to the conference call - they explain the negative book value. The GAAP book value only reflets market value changes for securities and derivative and does not mark their loan investments or debt. Because of dramatic spread widening in the quartrer, the GAAP book value was negative. However, the number in no way represents the the company's true economic book value. A beter metric to use is the adjusted book value, which for Newcastle comes out to $16.23 and is equivilent to FAS 159.

    I hope this answers your question...     Reply
  • commenter
    Index_Is_Har
    d_To_Beat
    May 15 11:02 AM
    Newcastle, RAIT Financial: The Long Case for REITs [view article]
    Generally agreed but this analysis completely discounts any problems with NCT's commercial real estate loans (most of their portfolio) as we are heading into a recession and there will not be clarity on that for several quarters. Reply
  • commenter
    The Devil
    is in the
    Details
    May 15 07:34 AM
    Newcastle, RAIT Financial: The Long Case for REITs [view article]
    This would be the first financial ever with negative book value to boost the dividend ever. You should check out page 29 of 10-Q for the 1Q08 that highlights how close NCT is to triggering covenants on its funding Reply
  • commenter
    Fish Gone
    Bad
    May 12 03:34 PM
    My Website
    Are the Commercial REITs Now Stabilizing? [view article]
    I put in a few hours looking at these REITs. A little voice kept saying "Lincoln Bonds". Lincoln Bonds over and over again.

    If something appears to be too good to be true, then it probably is. A ridiculous yield should be a great big warning sign to anyone who will listen.

    Buy SLG, OFC, BPO, SPG, or EPR. Their yields are 2.75% to 6.3%

    As I write this, I see that AFN is now having a melt down.     Reply
  • commenter
    E Nuff Sed
    May 11 10:02 PM
    Are the Commercial REITs Now Stabilizing? [view article]
    CSE continues to look interesting. Though the financial leverage is high - over 5X - it is not ridiculous. Quarterly earnings are still 20% below dividend payout.

    AFN is probably close to going down the tubes ... doubtful if they will survive.     Reply
  • commenter
    jjason
    May 09 05:21 AM
    Are the Commercial REITs Now Stabilizing? [view article]
    This article is lacking in adequate information. Also, the management of RAS is responsible for a large decrease in shareholder value...especially for the shareholders who purchased RAS common stock for over $30.00 per share.

    Needless to say, RAS is not the only financial firm that has lost shareholder value.

    Finally, RAS is more of a lender than a real estate owner. There are better investments than RAS.     Reply
  • commenter
    OJO Zafado
    May 09 04:10 AM
    Are the Commercial REITs Now Stabilizing? [view article]
    I have had some success trading CBF. The author presumes lower interest rates. The commodities bubble make this a seemingly very short term scenario. This week it was WB reporting more losses out of left field on Saving's Bank life insurance! The shoes continue to drop in the financials. There was the former "Free Money World", Fed Chairman making sanguine remarks on Thurs. More shoes may yet drop in the foreign banks. Why did the Fed increase the TRCAs with the ECB and SNB by 100% this week? We are now in a period of public insecurity and distrust. The geniuses are now trying to discern if the period is now one where inflation expections are out of control yesterday, or if there is still a short window of time left before that time actually arrives. At the beginning of last month Ford extended 0%/60 financing to nearly it's entire line of vehicles. At some point they will stop giving away cars and trucks as well as participating in the depreciation. This will be the period of increasing "idle capacity". that is recession. Consumers have maxed out their HELOCs and many banks are ending the programs. If you have paid for gas in cash lately you will be stuck in line behind someone trying to get a few dollars authorized on their Debit card. Undaunted by the bank refusing the debit due to the wife beating them to the grocery store an hour earlier, they try over and over again, holding up the line. Most of these are the ones who already had their credit cards maxed out and shut off. What has Eddie Lampert done? It was supposed to be a Real Estate conglomerate Sears/K-Mart? What is the story on this "CENTRO" of Australia? Are they going to make it? It will be a long period of recovery this time as the consummer is becoming shell shocked by the real inflation not of any real consequence to the geniuses. Ben the Dollar Slayer stated upon assuming the Fed chairmanship,"The Fed's goal will be to maintain the current expectations for inflation" . Early last month the signal was from Ford. This month it is again from the financial markets as the PST & TBT kicked off on May 1st. The ETF is not a way to invest anymore. the ETF is a plce people who have or still have money put their money so that it will maintain it's value. This is what used to be called in third world countries the currency black market. If you had c-notes or fifties you could get 15% more shekels from a Russian trying to accumulate hard currency to send home than you could from an Israeli Bank. Commercial real estate may just beginning to deteriorate! It is a vicious cycle once underway. Idle capacity generating higher unemployment, causing consumption to fall, causing big box stores like the Home Depot slaughter, to close causing more unemployment causing more idle capacity etc. What comes first the idle capacity or the fear, anxiety & uncertainty brought on by huge disruptions in what was the American way of life? We can be sure that no martter who is elected in Nov as the leader of the "Free Money World", they will apply the same formula that has gotten us to this point. Big tax cuts combined with massive spending increases. Maybe one side would fund way more health care, Student loans, food Stamps, and unemployment insurace extensions, while the other will dump a few trillion more down into the cesspool of IRAQ. It is already begun as the champions of the Bear Stearns bondholders explain the idiocy of subsidising homeloans that the lender agrees to partially write down, and helping the Student loan situation. Enrollments are expected to drop at the nations colleges by 10-15% this Fall. Hey a few trillion here and a few trillion there and pretty soon you are talking about electronic money instead of a linen fiat currency. That should help out by saving on printing costs as the national mints now turn out pennies that cost 1.25 cents to make and nickels that cost 7 cents. There is still value in the US Dollar though if only in the pre'82 copper bullion coin Lincoln cent worth 1.5 cents. It is of course illegal to melt them down so that will stop that from happening for sure! In another year or so they will of course disappear. I would be very cautious going into commercial REITs before we emerge from the Summer market. A period that traditionally has defined the lows in market cycles. Reply
  • commenter
    NO DooDahs
    May 08 05:41 PM
    My Website
    Are the Commercial REITs Now Stabilizing? [view article]
    You'll probably find the answer to your RAS question here ...
    moneycentral.msn.com/i...     Reply
  • commenter
    Ames
    Tiedeman
    May 08 10:02 AM
    My Website
    Are the Commercial REITs Now Stabilizing? [view article]
    RAS is a dividend king. But can they pay the yield? Reply
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