CPT, Camden Property Trust
We believe producing consistent earnings growth through property operations, development and acquisitions, achieving market balance, and recycling capital are crucial factors to our success.
Read top to bottom, the owner's questions in the order an owner asks them: what the business is, whether the record holds, whether it survives and is any good, and what you would be paying. New to the questions? Start with the Method.
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, read from the numbers in its filings. The quantitative detail is in the sections below; the verdict is left to you.
- What it is
- A property business, read on funds from operations and net asset value rather than reported earnings.
- What moves the needle
- Occupancy, rents, and the cost of debt. Read on funds from operations and net asset value, because GAAP depreciation distorts the earnings.
- Is it a good business?
- Funds from operations per share have shrunk (−3% a year). The dividend takes 63% of FFO, and is covered. Debt is 43% of assets, moderate for a REIT. The quality and location of the properties, the lease terms and occupancy, and the cost of the debt are what the 10-K settles, and no single ratio captures them.
Every line here is arithmetic from the company's own filings, not a model's opinion, and each figure appears in full in the sections below.
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing, no estimates| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMMar 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RevenueRevenue | $876M | $8M | $7M | $9M | $11M | $11M | $5M | $3M | $7M | $13M | $13M |
| Net incomeNet inc. | $820M | $196M | $156M | $220M | $124M | $304M | $654M | $403M | $163M | $384M | $388M |
| Funds from operationsFFO | $775M | $417M | $457M | $506M | $491M | $550M | $1.2B | $753M | $702M | $735M | $671M |
| FFO / shareFFO/sh | $8.62 | $4.51 | $4.79 | $5.09 | $4.93 | $5.35 | $11.02 | $6.88 | $6.46 | $6.77 | $6.40 |
| Dividend payout (FFO)Payout | 86% | 67% | 65% | 63% | 68% | 62% | 33% | 58% | 64% | 63% | — |
| Debt / assetsDebt/assets | 41% | 36% | 37% | 37% | 44% | 40% | 39% | 40% | 39% | 43% | 47% |
| Total debtDebt | $2.5B | $2.2B | $2.3B | $2.5B | $3.2B | $3.2B | $3.7B | $3.7B | $3.5B | $3.9B | $4.3B |
| Dividends / shareDiv/sh | $7.38 | $3.03 | $3.12 | $3.19 | $3.35 | $3.34 | $3.66 | $3.98 | $4.15 | $4.25 | — |
| Book value / shareBVPS | $33.53 | $36.81 | $34.72 | $36.51 | $34.64 | $40.82 | $46.01 | $45.53 | $43.07 | $40.23 | $38.41 |
Owner’s Scorecard
Is it a good business?
- about $6.77 per shareNet income $384M + depreciation $611M − gains on sale $261M
GAAP net income with property depreciation added back, because the buildings a REIT charges against earnings usually hold or grow their value. This, not net income, is what a REIT is actually priced on. It is an approximation here: where a filing reports gains on property sales, we remove them, the way the NAREIT definition does.
- CoveredDividends $461M ÷ FFO $735M
A REIT must distribute most of its taxable income, so a high payout is normal and the question is whether FFO covers it. Above 100%, the trust is funding the dividend with debt or asset sales, and a cut usually follows.
Is it sound?
- Debt / assets 43%ModerateTotal debt $3.9B ÷ assets $9.0B
Every REIT runs on leverage; how much is the question. Heavy debt is what turns a property downturn into a wipeout, as 2008 showed, so a conservative balance sheet is part of the moat here, not a drag on it.
- Strong(operating income + depreciation) ÷ interest $138M
How many times the property cash earnings cover the interest bill. Comfortable coverage is what lets a REIT refinance through a tight credit market instead of being forced to sell into one.
Solvent is not the same as cheap; growing is not the same as good. These are vital signs, not a verdict, the judgment is yours, and the filing is one click away.
Management & pay
Two questions Buffett actually asks about pay: is stock compensation, a real expense, whatever the income statement pretends, quietly large, and is the top wildly out of line with the floor. He's no populist about it; he just wants pay that's rational and earned, and comp committees that aren't lapdogs.
- Stock-based compensation$17M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 131% of revenue, equal to 3% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. And note the trap, the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
What the price implies
price / FFOA REIT is priced on a multiple of its funds from operations (FFO), the cash it earns once the depreciation on its buildings is added back. Type today’s price; we show the multiple you would pay and the income and growth it implies. Nothing is stored.
Enter a price above to run it.
The justified multiple is 1 ÷ (discount rate − growth), a perpetuity on FFO. At an 8% discount and 3% growth, a REIT is worth about 20× FFO. Raise the discount rate and the multiple falls: the same interest-rate gravity that pulls on every yield asset.
FFO about $6.40 per share on 105M shares. A lens, not a target. FFO here adds back depreciation and removes property-sale gains, the NAREIT method; it does not net out maintenance capex (AFFO), occupancy or lease terms, which the 10-K does.
What the filing emphasizes, FY2025
read the 10-K →Each year a 10-K must name what could go wrong, in the company's own words. Here are the ones Graham and Buffett would stop on, each set against the figure from the same filings that bears on it, anchored to a period you can find in the record above. We point; the judgment is yours.
- Debt terms & refinancingMD&A
The fine print behind the debt. Covenants and near-term maturities decide who is really in control when a year goes badly.
“Our unsecured revolving credit facility is subject to customary financial covenants and limitations.”
From the recordBalance sheet (TTM)$3.9B heavy net debt · interest covered 3.8× - Regulation & policyMD&A
Rules that can rewrite the economics, tariffs, antitrust, data, export controls.
“Amounts available under the Program may be borrowed, repaid, and reborrowed from time to time, with the aggregate face or principal amount of the Notes outstanding under the Program at any time not to exceed $600.0 million.”
A judgment, not a number, weigh it against the filing yourself.
What changed, FY2025 vs FY2024
read the 10-K →Most of a 10-K is boilerplate carried over verbatim; the signal is in what's new. These lines appear this year and weren't there last, figure updates filtered out, so only the language shift remains.
- “The decrease was due to lower NOI of approximately $8.0 million related to five dispositions completed in 2025, partially offset by higher other property NOI of approximately $5.7 million, primarily driven by lower storm-related expenses during the year ended December 31, 2025.”
- “The increase during the year ended December 31, 2025 as compared to the same period in 2024 was primarily due to an increase in gains on sales of operating properties and a lower impairment charge associated with land development activities in 2025 as compared to 2024.”
- “The decrease was primarily related to lower advocacy contributions during the year ended December 31, 2025 as compared to the same period in 2024, partially offset by higher salaries, benefits, and incentive compensation costs.”
- “The impairment associated with land development activities for the year ended December 31, 2024 of approximately $41.0 million related to three projects for which development activities had been discontinued.”
- “We rely on, or may rely in the future on, certain third-party service and software providers to host systems, provide key software, and to supply and store our sensitive data in a secure manner.”
Classic text analysis over the filing itself, no model wrote a word of this, and every quote is the company's own.
Peers, Real estate
The same industry, side by side on the REIT lens, compare, don't rank by a single number.● marks best in the group.
| Company | Revenue | FFO margin | FFO / assets | Payout (FFO) | Debt / assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ELSEquity Lifestyle Properties, Inc. | $1.5B | 40% | 10.6% | 64% | 58% |
| FRTFederal Realty Investment Trust | $1.3B | 54% | 7.5% | — | 54% |
| AMTAmerican Tower Corp. | $936M | — | 7.2% | 70% | 67% |
| SBACSBA Communications Corporation | $244M | — | 9.8% | 42% | 111% |
| CCICrown Castle Inc. | $215M | — | 3.6% | 183% | 86% |
| CPTCamden Property Trust | $13M | — | 8.1% | 63% | 43% |
| ESSEssex Property Trust, Inc. | $9M | — | 7.4% | — | — |
| AVBAvalonbay Communities Inc | $7M | — | — | — | 42% |