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Zacks Analyst Interview Highlights: Equity Residential and HCP, Inc.

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  Published in Business and Finance on Monday, December 8th 2008 at 3:49 GMT by Market Wire
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CHICAGO--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Zacks.com releases the latest Analyst Interview. Today's interview is with senior analyst Greg Sukenik,who talks about Equity Residential (NYSE: [ EQR ]) and HCP, Inc. (NYSE: [ HCP ]).

A synopsis of today's Analyst Interview is presented below. The full article can be read at [ http://at.zacks.com/?id=2678 ].

We would overweight apartments, health care and select retail.

Apartment REITs are one of the best performing REIT sectors in 2008. Apartment landlords have benefited from the rapid decline in home sales, which has created a larger pool of renters. This will continue, although more competition has been added from houses and condos that cannot be sold. Look for rental rate growth in the sector to slow or stop; landlords will no longer be able to put through rental increases due to tapped out customers.

Health care has also one of the best performing sectors in 2008. This is still one of our favorite sectors going into 2009. Health care is possibly the most "recession proof" REIT sector; healthcare spending will continue to outpace inflation.

A couple of names we like:

Equity Residential (NYSE: [ EQR ]) -- The largest apartment REIT has geographically diverse portfolio, strong balance sheet and plenty of liquidity. The company has addressed near-term debt maturities.

HCP, Inc. (NYSE: [ HCP ]) -- A health care REIT with diverse health care portfolio is good in long-term markets. The company is moving toward more private pay sources, and has taken care of most 2009 expirations.

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