Based on the aggregated intelligence of 150,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, storage space provider Public Storage (NYSE: PSA ) has received a distressing two-star ranking.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Public Storage's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Public Storage facts
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Headquarters (Founded)
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Glendale, Calif. (1971)
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Market Cap
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$15.0 billion
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Industry
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REIT
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Trailing-12-Month Revenue
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$1.7 billion
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Management
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CEO Ronald Havner, Jr. (since 2002)
CFO John Reyes (since 1996)
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Trailing-12-Month Return on Capital
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4.8%
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Revenue and Net Income Growth (Over Past Year)
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(3.5%) and (15.4%)
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1-Year Return
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88%
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Competitors
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Amerco (Nasdaq: UHAL )
Sovran Self Storage (NYSE: SSS )
U-Store-It Trust (NYSE: YSI )
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Highly Rated REIT Alternatives
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Extra Space Storage (NYSE: EXR )
Lexington Realty Trust (NYSE: LXP )
Winthrop Realty (NYSE: FUR )
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Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 34% of the 226 members who have rated Public Storage believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bears include NostraDodger and All-Star kurtdabear, who is ranked in the top 6% of our community.
Two months ago, NostraDodger tapped Public Storage as an unsafe place to lock away your capital:
Who, in their right mind, will pay to store old junk; when they can use this money to buy new items at 90% off? When money gets tighter, which it will, you can expect to see storage renters take a hike -- and leave the owners with this junk to haul away.
In a pitch from last week, kurtdabear echoed that bearishness:
[Public Storage] has been a good performer over the years, but I see hard times ahead. When people are having trouble keeping their houses, they're not going to stay current on the storage units where they keep their extra "stuff."
In my city, legal ads announcing public auctions of the contents of storage units that are in arrears are now commonly found intermingled with the foreclosure and tax-sale notices that fill several pages each day in the local newspapers.
That bodes ill for a company with a large stake in that market. Their commercial and container segments also stand to suffer from the U.S. consumers' new-found frugality.
What do you think about Public Storage, or any other stock for that matter? If you want to retire rich, you need to protect your portfolio from any undue risk. Staying away from dangerous stocks is crucial to securing your financial future, and on Motley Fool CAPS, thousands of investors are working every day to flag them. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!
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