Moody's affirmed the Baa1 senior unsecured ratings of Duke Realty LP, the operating subsidiary of industrial real estate investment trust Duke Realty Corp., with a stable outlook.

The affirmation is backed by the Indianapolis-based company's high quality and well-occupied industrial portfolio, conservative debt and solid liquidity profile.

The rating agency said the quality of Duke Realty's industrial portfolio was enhanced after the company sold nonstrategic assets over the last few years, with the sale proceeds redeployed into higher quality assets.

Moody's added that for Duke Realty's rating category, leverage metrics are very strong at 29% effective leverage and 4.5x net debt to EBITDA for the third quarter of 2019.

The agency believes the REIT will maintain a net debt to EBITDA ratio in the low 5x range in the long-term, in line with where Duke Realty historically operated.

The stable outlook reflects Moody's expectation that the company will continue to generate healthy earnings through same store growth opportunities and development and maintenance of conservative capital structure.