Highwoods Properties price target raised to $21 from $18 at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley raised the firm’s price target on Highwoods Properties to $21 from $18 and keeps an Underweight rating on the shares. The firm notes that over the next two years, there are 26M square foot of lease expirations that may pose further downside risk to office REIT occupancy and has dissected expirations and existing vacancies in about 50 real estate investment trust properties that represent about 50% of total expirations to estimate which REITs are best positioned to protect occupancy and which may be at greater risk of losing occupancy. Based on its analysis, the firm identifies SL Green (SLG) and Vornado (VNO) as two REITs that “stand out positively” given they have the lowest lease expirations, best submarket exposure and have disclosed a significant amount of backfilling, while it continues to monitor activity at Highwoods, Hudson Pacific (HPP) and Office Properties (OPI), the analyst tells investors.