Life Storage cut to Hold at Jefferies amid Self Storage REIT sector downgrade

As previously reported, Jefferies analyst Jonathan Petersen downgraded Life Storage to Hold from Buy with a price target of $97, down from $123. He is downgrading the Self Storage REIT sector to market-weight as he believes Life Storage and its peers could be poised for a slower year, Petersen tells investors. He sees the group grappling with higher supply growth in their markets relative to peers and warns that if expense pressure collides with weaker pricing power that same-store NOI growth could "land in negative territory" for the second half of 2023 and valuation multiples could compress.