I love learning about new things. It was kind of a slow earnings day yesterday, but I am glad I took a peek at Forest City Enterprises (NYSE:FCEA) because I learned a great deal. Forest City reported lots of news. It paid its regular dividend. It paid a special dividend after selling its wholesale lumberyard, Forest City Trading Group. And it reported earnings, or more importantly, EBDT, which I will get to in a moment.
Forest City is a real estate operating company (REOC). It operates a diversified real estate portfolio and is made up of three businesses: the commercial group, the residential group, and the land development group (see its website for details). It differs from a real estate investment trust (REIT) in that it keeps the earnings to reinvest rather than paying them out to shareholders. That's good as long as management can allocate capital well. And according to the press release, management seems to be doing just that.
Quarterly per-share earnings before depreciation, amortization, and deferred taxes (EBDT, because EBDADT would just be silly) rose 18% year over year, while consolidated revenues increased 8.5%. Revenues mainly consist of lease payments, and the growth was primarily due to a number of new projects and some acquisitions in 2003 and 2004. Makes sense -- the more properties you develop and rent out, the more revenue you create, especially when the tenants are companies such as Home Depot (NYSE:HD), BJ's Wholesale Club (NYSE:BJ), PETsMART (NASDAQ:PETM), Staples (NASDAQ:SPLS), and Walgreen (NYSE:WAL).
But the most curious thing was who owns shares: Mason Hawkins, Wally Weitz, Marty Whitman, and Markel (NYSE:MKL). But don't be victims of envy. Bill Mann will tell you that just because these renowned value investors own a combined 30% of the shares outstanding doesn't mean you should go out and buy. But it's probably a good indication that a solid prospect could be buried in the business. Learning is cool, especially from experienced professionals with great track records.
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Fool contributor David Meier does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned.
