Among the 151 publicly traded U.S. equity real estate investment trusts with a market capitalization above $200 million and at least three analyst estimates, 97 topped their consensus earnings estimates and 49 fell short.

Overall, U.S. equity REITs beat their consensus earnings estimates by a median of 1.1%.

Four of the five data center REITs topped their second-quarter S&P Global Market Intelligence funds from operations-per-share estimates, the largest percentage of any property type. At the other end of the spectrum, seven of the 15 specialty REITs — comprising land, communications, timber, prison, energy infrastructure, casino and advertising companies — fell short of their respective consensus earnings estimates.

Timber REIT Rayonier Inc. reported the largest earnings beat for the quarter, topping its S&P Global Market Intelligence normalized EPS estimate by 59.6%. President and CEO David Nunes noted in the company's earnings release that results for the Pacific Northwest timber segment saw significant improvement thanks to 36% higher harvest volumes and a 26% year-over-year boost in delivered saw timber and pulpwood prices, reflecting strong domestic and export market conditions.

Industrial REIT Liberty Property Trust posted the largest miss, falling short of its FFO-per-share estimate of 65 cents by 81.5%. The company said in its earnings release that second-quarter FFO was negatively impacted by a $60 million development service fee expense related to the completion of the Comcast Technology Center development in Philadelphia, as well as a $26 million noncash impairment charge associated with a mixed-use development in Camden, N.J., which together totaled 57 cents per diluted share.

Bluerock Residential Growth REIT Inc., a multifamily-focused REIT, reported FFO of 2 cents per share for the second quarter, 80.2% below its consensus estimate of 10 cents per share. However, the REIT reported a 35.7% increase year over year in core FFO, and adjusted FFO-per-share growth of 30.8% compared to the second quarter of 2017.

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