Liberty Property Profit Falls

Liberty Property Trust(LRY Quote), a real estate investment trust operator, said its third-quarter earnings fell 9.6% from the year-ago period.

The company earned $46.88 million, or 52 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with $51.87 million, or 58 cents a share, a year ago. Income from continuing operations rose 8.71% from a year ago to $36.12 million, or 40 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call were expecting earnings of 38 cents a share.

Third-quarter funds from operations rose 4.7% from a year ago to $75.08 million, or 79 cents a share. Analysts were expecting funds from operations of 79 cents a share in the most recent quarter.

Third-quarter revenue rose by 5.68% from a year ago to $171.42 million as against analysts' expectation of $170.94 million.

Liberty expects to report funds from operations for 2006 between $3.13 to $3.15 a share, and for 2007 between $3.10 to $3.25 a share. Analysts expect the company to report FFO of $3.15 a share for 2006 and $3.30 a share for the year 2007.

Third-quarter operating income increased 2.75% from a year ago to $67.94 million and operating margin declined 113 basis points to 39.63%.

During the third quarter, Liberty brought into service six development properties totaling 312,000 square feet. At the quarter-end, the properties were 92.2% leased at a yield of 9.3% on the company's investment of $35.1 million. The Malvern, Pa.-based company began development of 10 properties totaling 1.2 million square feet with an expected total investment of $116.4 million.