Getty Realty Corp /Md/ Q1 FY2026 Earnings Call

Good morning, and welcome to the Getty Realty Corp. first quarter 2026 earnings call. This call is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Prior to starting the call, Joshua Dicker, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of the company, will read a safe harbor statement and provide information about non-GAAP financial measures. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. I would like to thank you all for joining us for Getty Realty Corp.'s first quarter earnings conference call. Yesterday afternoon, the company released its financial and operating results for the quarter ended 03/31/2026. The Form 8-Ks and earnings release are available in the Investor Relations section of our site at gettyrealty.com. Certain statements made during this call are not based on historical information and may be forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to trends, events, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include our 2026 guidance and may include statements made by management including those regarding the company's future financial performance, future operations, or investment plans and opportunities. We caution you that such statements reflect our best judgment based on factors currently known to us and that actual events or results could differ materially. I refer you to the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended 12/31/2025 as well as any subsequent filings with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of the risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made today. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect our view only as of today. The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement that may be made during this call. Also, please refer to our earnings release for a discussion of our use of non-GAAP financial measures including our definition of adjusted funds from operations, or AFFO, and our reconciliation of those measures to net earnings. With that, let me turn the call over to Christopher Constant, our Chief Executive.

Thank you, Joshua Dicker. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our earnings call for 2026. Joining us on the call today are Brian Dickman, our Chief Financial Officer, and RJ Ryan, our Chief Investment Officer. I will lead off today's call by providing highlights of Getty Realty Corp.'s first quarter financial performance and investment activity, RJ Ryan will then discuss our portfolio and investments in greater detail, and Brian Dickman will provide additional information regarding our earnings, balance sheet, and 2026 AFFO per share guidance. I am pleased to report that Getty Realty Corp. is off to a strong start in 2026, highlighted by a 13.1% year-over-year increase in our annualized base rent, a 6.8% increase in our AFFO per share, and an increase to our full-year 2026 earnings guidance. The foundation for this growth is our in-place portfolio, which is essentially fully occupied, achieved 100% rent collections, and continues to demonstrate stable rent coverage. Despite volatility driven by current geopolitical events, our tenants and their businesses have once again proved their resilience and ability to perform during rapidly changing operating conditions. Building on that foundation is the impact of the capital we deployed in 2025 and year to date. We are seeing the benefits of investments we have made in our platform to accelerate growth, including a larger investment team, new technologies, and improved processes. And we expect to capitalize on constructive transaction markets for convenience and automotive retail properties throughout the year. Year to date, we have invested more than $34 million at an initial cash yield of 8%. Beyond what we have closed, we have approximately $125 million of investments under contract, as well as a pipeline of transactions under signed nonbinding letters of intent that is in excess of the pipeline which was disclosed at the time of our recent equity offering. This pipeline is supported by a robust capital position as our recent capital markets activities have provided us with significant liquidity and attractive cost of capital to fund our 2026 business plans. We currently have more than $170 million of unsettled forward equity, and our $450 million revolver is completely undrawn. When we look at the spectrum of opportunities under contract and in our pipeline, we are confident that we can deploy this capital accretively as we move through the year. As we think about the rest of 2026 and beyond, I take great comfort in the quality of our portfolio, including its proven durability and ongoing diversification. I have no doubt that the platform we have built can drive disciplined growth as we continue to lean into our expertise in sourcing, underwriting, and closing investments in our core convenience and automotive retail sectors. We remain committed to our disciplined underwriting approach, which prioritizes owning real estate in high-density or growing metro areas with excellent access and visibility in retail markets and which is leased to creditworthy operators under a long-term triple-net lease. The sectors we invest in are large and fragmented and benefit from prevailing consumer trends for demand, convenience, speed, and service. As these industries continue to consolidate and become more institutional, we believe our direct sale-leaseback approach and deeper relationships in our target segments uniquely position Getty Realty Corp. to grow with both established and emerging retailers. With that, I will let RJ Ryan discuss our portfolio and investment activities.

Thank you, Christopher Constant. At quarter end, our lease portfolio included 1,186 net lease properties and two active redevelopment sites. Excluding the active redevelopment, occupancy was 99.7% and our weighted average lease term was 10.1 years. Our net lease portfolio spans 45 states plus Washington, D.C., with 61% of our annualized base rent coming from top-50 MSAs, and 77% coming from top-100 MSAs. Our rents continue to be well covered with a trailing 12-month tenant rent coverage ratio of 2.5x. Turning to our investment activities, for the quarter, we invested $30.3 million across 29 properties at an initial cash yield of 8%. The weighted average lease term on acquired assets for the quarter was 8.8 years. Highlights for this quarter's investments include the acquisition of 22 properties for $27.3 million, including 16 auto service centers and six drive-thru quick service restaurants, and $3 million of incremental development funding for the construction of multiple new auto service centers and drive-thru quick service restaurants. Subsequent to quarter end, we invested an additional $4.1 million, bringing our year-to-date total investments to $34.4 million at an 8% initial cash yield. Our year-to-date activity included the acquisition of several net leases that we view as a complement to our core sale-leaseback business. This drove a shorter weighted average lease term than our typical investment activity but also led to us adding 11 new tenants to the portfolio and executing granular acquisitions with an average $1.2 million purchase price. Looking ahead, as Christopher Constant mentioned, we currently have approximately $125 million of investments under contract and a significant pipeline of investments under signed letters of intent. These transactions are spread across our four convenience and automotive retail sectors and are predominantly relationship sale-leasebacks and development funding opportunities with new 15- to 20-year lease terms. The initial cash yields for these investment opportunities are in the mid- to high-7% area. Moving to our asset management activities, as previously announced, we extended five unitary leases totaling $11.3 million of ABR, or 5% of total ABR, during the first quarter. The net benefit of these lease extensions was an increase to our weighted average lease term and a significant reduction in ABR expiring in 2027. In addition, we sold two properties during the quarter for gross proceeds of $3.7 million. With that, I will turn the call over to Brian Dickman to discuss our financial results.

Thanks, RJ Ryan. Good morning, everyone. For 2026 Q1, we reported AFFO per share of $0.63, a 6.8% increase over Q1 2025. FFO and net income for the quarter were $0.69 and $0.43 per share, respectively. A more detailed description of our quarterly results can be found in our earnings release, and our corporate presentation contains additional information regarding our earnings and dividend per share growth over the last several years. Starting with some color on G&A expenses, management focuses on the ratio of G&A, excluding stock-based compensation and nonrecurring retirement costs, to cash rental and interest income. That ratio was 9.2% for the quarter ended 03/31/2026, a 130-basis-point improvement over the same period in 2025. As we mentioned on our last call, we expect G&A growth to be less than 2% in 2026 and for our G&A ratio to fall below 9% as we focus on controlling expenses and continuing to scale the company. Moving to the balance sheet and liquidity, as of 03/31/2026, net debt to EBITDA was 5.1x, or 4.2x including the impact of unsettled forward equity, both of which compared favorably to our target leverage of 4.5x to 5.5x. Fixed charge coverage for the quarter was 4x. During the first quarter, we received $250 million from our previously announced unsecured notes issuance and used the proceeds to repay the borrowings under our revolving credit facility. We ended the quarter with $1 billion of total unsecured notes outstanding, with a weighted average interest rate of 4.5% and a weighted average maturity of six years. We have full borrowing capacity under our $450 million revolving credit facility and no debt maturities until June 2028. In February, driven by our growing investment pipeline and the strong performance of our stock to start the year, we raised $130 million of new common equity in an overnight offering. Those shares were sold on a forward basis, and we currently have a total of 5.5 million shares subject to outstanding forward sales agreements which, upon settlement, are anticipated to raise gross proceeds of approximately $171.5 million. As Christopher Constant mentioned, we are in a very strong capital position with more than $625 million of total liquidity and have more than sufficient capital to fund our under-contract pipeline and additional investments as we continue to source new opportunities. With respect to our earnings outlook, as a result of our year-to-date activities, we are increasing our full-year 2026 AFFO per share guidance to a range of $2.50 to $2.52 from the prior range of $2.48 to $2.50. As a reminder, our guidance reflects the current run rate from our in-place portfolio with certain expense and credit loss variability and does not include any prospective investments or capital markets activities. We think this approach remains appropriate for our business and look forward to updating everyone on the positive impact that our investment program has on our earnings as we move through the year. With that, I will ask the operator to open the call for questions.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. You may press star then 2 if you would like to remove yourself from the question queue. Please press star then 1. The first question we have comes from Mitch Germain of Citizens Bank. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and congrats on the quarter. Christopher Constant, what do you think is driving the increased momentum in the investment pipeline? Obviously, I know you have made some investments in people. Is it more sellers rationalizing their pricing expectations? Is there anything you can point to?

I think it is a little bit of all of the above. With more dealmakers at Getty Realty Corp., there is more business development activity. As the portfolio has grown, we have more relationships that we can tap into. There is an element of businesses growing. The theme around consolidation certainly continues in all the sectors we invest in. As operators consider their capital needs, I do think the sale-leaseback market is becoming more attractive and is a complement in certain cases to other capital sources like debt or equity. So it is a mix. Most of our conversations are around growth, and operators are constructive about current price dynamics across the sectors. We feel that in our portfolio and our pipeline, which is why you hear positive tone in our script and in the quarter.

Are you becoming any more selective with regards to what sectors you are allocating capital to? Or are you open for business across everything that you are investing in?

We are focused investors, which by nature makes us somewhat selective. But within the four sectors that we invest in, we are equally excited about all four of them. The broader pipeline under contract and what is behind it includes numerous opportunities across all of those verticals.

Great. Last one for me. Brian Dickman, you talked about scalability of the platform. Can you highlight some of the things you have accomplished to get a little more efficient?

I think you have heard both Christopher Constant and RJ Ryan, and on past calls, Mark Olear, talk about the things we have been doing around technology and process improvement. Those efforts are having an impact. Net lease platforms are inherently very scalable. We have been investing in the platform for a number of years, and combined with some market dynamics Christopher Constant went through, we are starting to see the benefits of those efforts.

Congrats.

The next question we have comes from Upal Rana of KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Great. Thank you. Christopher Constant, with the pipeline growing, I am curious what you are seeing out there in terms of larger portfolio deals?

What we closed this quarter was more granular with individual asset acquisitions, but the broader pipeline and opportunities we are underwriting include a mix of midsize to larger portfolios. Operators are looking to continue to grow and consolidate. Mid-market M&A transactions or larger portfolio transactions can include a component of sale-leaseback financing to help get those deals done.

Okay. Great. And then, Brian Dickman, your cost of capital has not materially improved this year, and you have nearly $170 million in the forward equity and also the revolver. I want your thoughts on your strategy on use of capital as we go through 2026 and any additional appetite to raise more capital?

Fair observations and not lost on us regarding cost of capital, but our strategy around capital raising and allocation has not changed. We will maintain leverage in the 4.5x to 5.5x range. We aim to keep the pipeline at least partially funded so we have some certainty around cost of capital. This year, you will see us draw on the revolver for the debt piece and settle equity to maintain leverage. Additional equity beyond that will depend on the pipeline, its magnitude, where deals are priced, where the stock is trading, and our cost of capital. I do not see a change in strategy; that is how we have executed over the last several years, and I expect us to do the same this year and beyond.

Okay. Great. Thank you.

The next question we have comes from Michael Goldsmith of UBS. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Can you talk a little bit about bad debt? Are you seeing any challenges within the portfolio? Also, can you update us on how bad debt is baked into your 2026 guidance and if that has changed since the start of the year? Thanks.

Michael Goldsmith, we use about a 25-basis-point assumption for credit loss. We did not experience any of that in the first quarter. That assumption is conservative relative to longer periods of time and continues to be what is baked into the guidance on a go-forward basis. The portfolio itself is quite healthy. There is nothing that rises to the level of a watch list for us, and we are not anticipating significant concerns around credit loss in the near to medium term. These are nondiscretionary, defensive, essential-type businesses. While there is geopolitical and macro noise, tenants continue to perform and the businesses continue to perform. It is prudent to have an assumption in our guidance for credit loss, but there is nothing imminent that gives us concern today.

Thanks for that, Brian Dickman. I think this was touched on on some other net lease earnings calls, but 7-Eleven is closing some stores — more of the smaller locations. Just wanted to get a sense of how that, if at all, influences your portfolio or how you are thinking about your portfolio and how to be positioned in the c-store space going forward? Thanks.

7-Eleven is a tenant of ours, but they are not in our top 20. Broadly, this is a trend we have been discussing with investors for years. C-stores are getting larger and more complex. The importance of food, beverage, and brand to drive customer visits inside the store is not a new trend. With a portfolio the size of 7-Eleven’s, they will have smaller stores and will focus on larger stores to compete with brands that may be slightly ahead. Given our long experience in the store business, this is consistent with what our tenants are doing. If you look at the acquisition activity we closed in c-store last year, the average store size was around 7,000 to 8,000 square feet. That is the modern c-store: heavy food, brand importance, loyalty programs; they still sell fuel and traditional merchandise, but it is far more than the old-line c-store. We do have some older assets that were part of the legacy business; those leases were renewed this quarter. They are still profitable. When you have a well-located, slightly smaller store, those can still make money for our tenants. We were pleased to get those leases extended, and our tenants wanted to stay there.

I echo Christopher Constant’s comments. 7-Eleven did announce those closures. They also announced that about a third of those closures, numerically, are planned reopenings or new stores in a larger format. This reflects the industry evolution and aligns with Getty Realty Corp.'s investment strategy and how our portfolio has evolved.

Thank you very much. Good luck in the second quarter. Thanks, Brian Dickman.

Thank you. The next question we have comes from Brad Heffern of RBC Capital Markets.

Yes. Hey, good morning, everyone. Question about the war and gas prices. I know most of the c-store margin is inside the store, but sometimes they struggle to pass on higher gas prices right away, or customers may have less money to spend inside the store. There can be a working capital draw too. Do you think there will be any net impact on your tenants from this? Or do you think they will be able to withstand it?

It is a great question. On the fuel side, we started the year at retail fuel prices that were less than $3 a gallon nationally, and we entered the year with fuel margins on average north of $0.40 to $0.45. That is a healthy number. Typically, tenants have struggled to pass on 100% of an increase when there is a rapid movement up in oil, but much of that increase has been passed on nationally. If margins were in the high $0.40s, they are still nationally above $0.40. When oil prices come down, tenants can sometimes widen their margin or hold retail pricing. To date, tenants continue to see fuel margins remain healthy. Conversations with tenants focus on the duration of price changes, consumer health, and driving store traffic. In our portfolio, the c-store and fuel sides remain highly profitable, and tenants are working to drive traffic to the higher-margin inside-store business.

Okay. Got it. Thank you for that. And then, Brian Dickman, on the guidance, you obviously closed acquisitions in the first quarter. It does not seem like enough to make the guide go up by 1%. Can you walk through what drove that? I assume part of it was the equity raise, but anything else to call out?

There are two components. The equity itself would not have impacted the first quarter. You have the impact of the investment activity and the actualization of assumed credit loss and expense variability. We had no credit loss in the first quarter. Expenses generally came in at or below budget. It is the combination of actual performance versus forecast plus the investment activity. Also, when dealing with aggregate amounts and per-share figures, rounding can affect the final guidance by a penny or two.

Okay. Got it. Thank you.

The next question we have comes from Wes Golladay of Baird. Please go ahead.

When you look at the cap rates, you are guiding to mid- to high-7s. It is a little bit lower versus what you have done in the last few quarters. Is that primarily due to mix where there are fewer developments or just different categories in the pipeline?

It is a combination of factors. With the equity we raised, there are more transactions in the market around 7.5%, allowing us to capture those deals and maintain a healthy spread while blending in deals in the high 7s approaching 8%. That is why the pipeline increased and why we continue to reference the activity behind it.

That mid- to high-7% range is where we have been operating for some time. We expect to remain quite active in that mid- to high-7% range, and we do have opportunities to expand activity on the lower end while blending in mid- to high-7% deals. We feel confident in our ability to do so.

Okay. Thanks for that. And just one housekeeping question. What are you looking at for G&A for the full year?

It should be right around $20 million, Wes Golladay, plus or minus. That is the cash G&A number. We were around 5.2% for the quarter. First and second quarters tend to be a little elevated and it moderates over the second half of the year, so that $20 million range is the expected cash G&A number.

Okay. Thank you very much.

The next question we have comes from Jenna Gallen of Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and congrats on the first quarter. Can you broadly break down how much of the $125 million pipeline is acquisitions and how much is development funding? If you can remind us, developments — is that typically a three-, four-, five-quarter construction timeline?

Hi, Jenna Gallen. The $125 million pipeline is, as we said on our last call about 60 days ago, tilted towards development funding, which generally has a three- to 12-month time horizon.

We have added more traditional sale-leaseback acquisition-leaseback transactions, but the pipeline as it sits is skewed more toward development funding.

The final question we have comes from Michael Gorman of BTIG. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning. Rent coverage remained pretty strong in the quarter versus the fourth quarter of last year, but there were some noticeable moves within the different buckets you break out in the presentation. Anything specific to point out there in terms of tenant trends moving between those different categories? Or anything in particular you are seeing on the consumer side that may be driving some of those moves between the different buckets that you break out? Thanks.

Hey, Michael Gorman. The short answer is no. We are on a three-month lag, so the data we are looking at is through 12/31/2025, which does not capture first quarter performance, although Christopher referenced conversations and anecdotal information from tenants and we are not expecting significant changes in Q1 either. Looking more granularly by lease and property type, results are very consistent versus the prior quarter. Sometimes a tenant or lease will move around a breakpoint — for example, a tenant around 2.5x might be 2.4x one period and 2.6x the next — and you see that often around breakpoints. But at a high level, it is very similar and very stable quarter over quarter across all four property types.

Great. Thank you very much. Thank you.

At this stage, there are no further questions. I would like to turn the floor back over to Christopher Constant for closing comments. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator, and thanks to everybody for participating on our call this morning. We are really pleased with the start of the year. We look forward to getting back on the phone with everybody when we report our second quarter in July.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.