National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE:NNN) Q1 2022 Results Conference Call May 3, 2022 10:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Steve Horn - President and Chief Executive Officer

Kevin Habicht - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Nicholas Joseph - Citi

Spenser Allaway - Green Street

Wes Golladay - Baird

Pedro Cardoso - TCW

John Massocca - Ladenburg Thalmann

Linda Tsai - Jefferies

Operator

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the National Retail Properties First Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode and we will open the floor for your questions and comments after the presentation.

It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, President and CEO, Steve Horn. Sir, the floor is yours.

Steve Horn

Thanks, Mathew. Good morning, and welcome to the National Retail Properties first quarter 2022 earnings call. Joining me on this call is our Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Habicht.

As this morning's press release reflects, 2022 is also fantastic start for National Retail Properties. Beyond our financial results post the quarter, early April NNN released inaugural corporate responsibility and sustainability report. We created report with the ISOS group. The report includes and highlights NNN’s commitments, achievements, the initiatives on an ongoing basis.

Also, before we get into the financial and portfolio detail, I want to address the current direction of NNN. As I mentioned earlier this year, I plan to continue executing the long standing business model of NNN locating, underwriting and acquiring real estate with the right operators, all while delivering consistent year-over-year core FFO growth. We remain vigilant and continuously evaluating market opportunities, but I currently plan to stay the course on delivering repeatable growth.

Given our strong beginning of the year, we are pleased to announce an increase in our guidance for 2022 core FFO from a range of 2.93 to 3 per share to a range of 3.01 to 3.08 per share. Kevin will have more details on this increase in his remarks.

Turning to the highlights of our first quarter financial results. Our portfolio of 3,271 freestanding single tenant properties continued to perform exceedingly well. Occupancy ticked up 20 basis points and in the quarter at 99.2, which remains above our long-term average of 98. The increase is a result of activity out of our leasing department. The department enjoyed a high level of interest by a number of strong national and regional tenants to take out some of our vacancies.