RBC says Trump SFR posts create sentiment headwinds, less negative for AMH

RBC Capital analyst Brad Heffern says that President Trump’s comments on “immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes” are obviously negative for the single-family rental REITs and will likely form a sentiment headwind indefinitely. At the same time, the firm would point out that AMH (AMH)/Invitation Homes (INVH) are long past the time of significant growth in home count, and RBC doesn’t view growing the footprint as core to the business at this point. If legislation stops at no additional home purchases and does not go further, the firm wouldn’t view that as particularly onerous, but there is no guarantee as to where things will end up. Overall, RBC views the news as less negative for AMH than for Invitation Homes given the former builds its own homes.