In afternoon trade the National Storage REIT (ASX: NSR) share price has edged lower following the release of its half year results.
At the time of writing the self-storage giant's units are down 1% to $1.87 but were up slightly this morning and trading within touching distance of their all-time high.
What happened in the first half?
During the half the trust delivered a 9% increase in storage revenue to $64.8 million and a 63% lift in good and services revenue to $4.9%. Together with a 94% increase in other revenue, total first half revenue rose 13% to $72.8 million.
Total operating centre expenditure rose just 3% on the prior corresponding period, leading to a 22% increase in operating profit to $42.2 million. This ultimately led to underlying earnings growth of 17% to $26.3 million. Underlying earnings came in at 4.2 cents on a per unit basis.
Managing director, Andrew Catsoulis, said: "These results reflect the resilience of our business and our focus on driving increased income from multiple revenue streams. These include operational performance, centre acquisitions, new developments and expansions."
He added: "The acquisition of 11 existing storage centres, plus 2 new development sites, over the period contributed to an 11% increase in total assets under management to $1.6 billion and is consistent with our ongoing commitment to executing our growth strategy in a highly fragmented industry."
Looking ahead, Mr Catsoulis expects its pipeline of 12 new development and expansion projects to fuel further growth by providing important additional capacity.
As such, he has reaffirmed the trust's FY 2019 underlying EPS guidance of 9.6 to 9.9 cents per unit and underlying earnings guidance of $62.5 million to $64.5 million, assuming no material changes in market conditions.
The trust has provided distribution guidance of 9.6 cents to 9.9 cents per unit, meaning it intends to pay all of its earnings out to unitholders. Though it is too late to get hold of its interim distribution as this was declared in December and will be paid to unitholders on March 1.
Based on its distribution guidance, its units offer a forward yield of approximately 5.1% to 5.3%.
Should you invest?
I thought this was a solid result from National Storage and believe it demonstrates why it could be one of the best dividend options on the share market right now.
Overall, I would class it as a buy along with fellow dividend shares Rural Funds Group (ASX: RFF) and Super Retail Group Ltd (ASX: SUL).
