Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR) is an example of a ballast company. It is the second largest U.S. student housing operator, with a $2 billion portfolio nationwide. We believe we are in the early innings of an outsourcing trend in which universities constrained by tighter budgets are reaching out to the private sector to develop and operate student housing. We think the company will benefit from the resulting increases in occupancy and rents as well as the build-out of its development pipeline.
From Baron Discovery Fund's Investing in Earlier Stage Small Cap Growth Companies January 2017.
