Bear Stearns Expands REIT Coverage

Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., New York, has announced that it is expanding its coverage of real estate investment trusts to include some of the biggest owners of strip shopping centers in the United States.Coverage of Kimco Realty Corp. and Equity One Inc. was initiated with "Outperform" ratings, and New Plan Excel Realty Trust was assigned a "Peer Perform" rating. "Our investment thesis for the REIT sector is to focus on those property types that are relatively less dependent on job growth as a fundamental driver of demand," said Ross Smotrich, a REIT analyst at Bear Stearns. "Strip shopping centers are typically anchored by grocery stores and discount retailers which provide convenience and fulfill basic consumer needs, making them relatively less sensitive to economic stress."