Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) Q3 2024 Earnings Call October 25, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Pamela Roper - General Counsel
Colin Connolly - President and Chief Executive Officer
Richard Hickson - Executive Vice President, Operations
Kennedy Hicks - Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer
Gregg Adzema - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Jeff Spector - Bank of America
Blaine Heck - Wells Fargo
Anthony Paolone - JPMorgan
John Kim - BMO Capital Markets
Nick Thillman - Baird
Upal Rana - KeyBanc
Peter Abramowitz - Jefferies
Dylan Burzinski - Green Street
Brendan Lynch - Barclays

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Cousins Properties Third Quarter Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] The call is being recorded on Friday, October 25, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Pamela Roper, General Counsel. Please go ahead.

Pamela Roper

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Cousins Properties third quarter earnings conference call. With me today are Colin Connolly, our President and Chief Executive Officer; Richard Hickson, our Executive Vice President of Operations; Kennedy Hicks, our Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer; and Gregg Adzema, our Chief Financial Officer. The press release and supplemental package were distributed yesterday afternoon as well as furnished on Form 8-K.

In the supplemental package, the company has reconciled all non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in accordance with Reg G requirements. If you did not receive a copy, these documents are available through the quarterly disclosures and supplemental SEC information links on the Investor Relations page of our website, cousins.com.

Please be aware that certain matters discussed today may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws and actual results may differ materially from these statements due to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors, including the risk factors set forth in our annual report on Form 10-K and our other SEC filings. The company does not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The full declaration regarding forward-looking statements is available in the supplemental package posted yesterday and a detailed discussion of some potential risks is contained in our filings with the SEC.

With that, I’ll turn the call over to Colin Connolly.

Colin Connolly

Thank you, Pam and good morning everyone. We had a strong third quarter at Cousins. On the earnings front, the team delivered $0.67 a share in FFO and same-property net operating income increased 4.4% on a cash basis. Leasing remained very strong. We leased 763,000 square feet during the quarter at a 7.2% cash rent roll up. This was our highest quarterly leasing volume since 2019. In addition, we executed compelling and accretive new investments and completed our inaugural unsecured bond issuance. These achievements are fantastic and continue to highlight the strength and resiliency of our leading Sun Belt lifestyle office portfolio and best-in-class balance sheet.