Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio), Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio), Manning & Napier Advisors Inc. and Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio) all invested in Life Storage (LSI, Financial) in the third quarter.
Life Storage is a fully integrated, self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) that acquires and manages self-storage property. The company is one of the largest self-storage companies in the world operating with approximately 650 self-storage facilities encompassing over 45 million square feet under the brand names Life Storage and Uncle Bob's Storage. The company is headquartered in Buffalo, New York, and employs more than 1,600 people.
Life Storage has a market cap of $3.77 billion, a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 32.63, an enterprise value of $5.64 billion, a price-book (P/B) ratio of 1.78 and a dividend yield of 4.52.
According to GuruFocus Life Storage has a 4 of 10 financial strength rating with a cash-debt ratio of 0.01, an equity-asset ratio of 0.55, an interest coverage ratio of 2.61 and an Altman Z-score of 1.43 indicating the company is in the distress zone and is in danger of filing for bankruptcy within the next two years. The company also has an 8 of 10 profitability and growth rating with an operating margin of 29.61%, a net-margin of 22.63%, an ROE of 6.03%, an ROA of 3.48% and EPS Growth (three years) of 25.20%.
The gurus may have decided to invest in Life Storage because the company is established with over 20 years of experience, it is among the world leaders in its industry, and the company is also trading close to its five-year low in price while it is expanding its operations and paying a dividend yield that is close to its five-year high.
Below is a Peter Lynch chart that shows Life Storage is trading above its intrinsic value
Disclosure: Author does not own any shares of this company.
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