Veris Residential price target lowered to $17.50 from $18 at Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI lowered the firm’s price target on Veris Residential (VRE) to $17.50 from $18 and keeps an In Line rating on the shares. The firm notes that Veris posted solid Q1 results, with the upside being driven by a timing difference in the Urby tax credit which got pulled forward from Q2 to Q1. While revenue growth slowed to 2.4% in Q1, the company did mention on the conference call that its blended leasing spreads accelerated throughout the quarter and continued to grow from 4.0% in March to a healthy 4.8% in April versus just 2.4% for all of Q1. Evercore stays on the sidelines until it gets more clarity around monetization opportunities.