Latest news with #STRS
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Stratus Posts Q2 Earnings on Home Sales, Boosts Buyback Plan
Shares of Stratus Properties Inc. STRS have gained 10.2% since the company reported its earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2025. This compares to a 1.2% change in the S&P 500 index over the same time frame. However, over the past month, the stock has slipped 3.6%, underperforming the broader S&P 500's 2.5% growth. This mixed performance highlights investor caution following the company's earnings release despite initial enthusiasm. Stratus reported net income per share of 3 cents in the second quarter of 2025, reversing a net loss of 21 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Revenues rose to $11.6 million, an increase of 36.7% from $8.5 million in the second quarter of 2024, primarily driven by the sale of two Amarra Villas homes versus one sale in the prior-year period. Stratus reported net income attributable to common stockholders of $0.3 million, reversing a net loss of $1.7 million in the year-ago quarter. Stratus Properties Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Stratus Properties Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Stratus Properties Inc. Quote Other Key Business Metrics Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) improved significantly in the quarter, rising to a loss of just $0.2 million compared with a loss of $1.3 million a year earlier. Leasing operations contributed strongly, posting $6.3 million in operating profit versus $1.8 million last year, helped by a $5 million pre-tax gain from the sale of the West Killeen Market retail project. In contrast, real estate operations incurred a $3.5 million loss, partly due to a $1 million write-off of receivables related to previously sold properties. Capital expenditures and development spending totaled $9.8 million during the quarter, primarily tied to Holden Hills Phase 1 and The Saint George multi-family project. Importantly, Stratus ended June 2025 with $59.4 million in cash and cash equivalents, up from $20.2 million at year-end 2024, and no borrowings drawn on its revolving credit facility. Management Commentary Chairman and CEO William H. Armstrong III emphasized that despite ongoing market challenges, the company achieved 'significant milestones' in the first half of 2025. These included completing construction of The Saint George, finishing the last two Amarra Villas homes, and substantially advancing infrastructure at Holden Hills Phase 1. Armstrong also highlighted the $47.8 million cash distribution from the newly formed Holden Hills Phase 2 joint venture and the sale of West Killeen Market, both of which bolstered liquidity. He underscored that the strengthened cash position provides flexibility for share repurchases, debt reduction, or reinvestment in the development pipeline. Factors Influencing Results The revenue growth in the quarter was largely transaction-driven, particularly from the higher-value Amarra Villas home sales and the disposal of West Killeen Market. However, lower aggregate sales in the first half compared with last year's sizable land and home transactions significantly impacted year-to-date results. On the cost side, higher real estate operating expenses and a receivables write-off weighed on margins. Leasing operations, supported by stabilized assets and asset sales, offset some of these headwinds. Other Developments During the quarter, Stratus entered into a joint venture with a third-party investor to develop Holden Hills Phase 2, a 570-acre mixed-use project within the Barton Creek community. The partnership immediately returned $47.8 million in cash to Stratus. Additionally, the board authorized a significant expansion of the share repurchase program from $5 million to $25 million. As of Aug. 8, 2025, the company had repurchased 135,620 shares at an average price of $22.13 per share, with $22 million still available under the program. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Stratus Properties Inc. (STRS): Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research
Fox News
12-08-2025
- Business
- Fox News
The next big tax threat is coming from your state capital
If you are one of the millions of people celebrating the trimming of federal fat, you'll want to know that a new taxpayer threat of stunning proportions is rising, fast. This time it's not coming from Washington, D.C.; it's coming from your state capital. A $1.3 trillion pension crisis is barreling toward American taxpayers, and common-sense solutions are being actively ignored. The most likely result: You will no sooner enjoy the federal tax and spending breaks of the Trump years than you will be forced to bail out state employee pension funds, which are insolvent after having been mismanaged for decades. Unless urgent reforms are made, your state property tax tab will increase by a percentage that one shudders to calculate. My own state of Ohio is, regrettably, at the center of this crisis. According to a new report by the nonpartisan Equable Institute, the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS) is between $20 and $30 billion in debt and will be unable to fully pay back the teachers who funded it throughout their careers. Equable also noted in its report that a stunning 44% of unfunded liabilities are from underperforming investments. How could this happen? How could a $90+ billion fund be so poorly managed as to be at a loss? The short answer is ugly: bureaucratic hubris and a sense of entitlement. Ohio STRS employees have taken unnecessary risks with the teachers' fund by investing in alternative assets such as private equity and hedge funds that have not yielded the returns that more conservative approaches would have produced. STRS actively manages its gargantuan portfolio, resisting a shift toward passive investment strategies despite overwhelming evidence that active management consistently underperforms. To justify these choices and disguise underperformance, they have engaged in a practice all too common among public pensions in the US—they have contrived a benchmark that no one else can reproduce, allowing them to claim success while taxpayers shoulder the consequences. Adding insult to injury, public records requests have revealed that for years, STRS has awarded and spent liberally on luxurious perks for themselves, such as $1,500 monthly plant-watering contracts, a cafeteria with a baby grand piano, and concierge services. Meanwhile, it has failed to deliver the most basic ROI to its funders, including meaningful cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) to the teachers who contributed to the system their entire working lives. Investment shortfalls are not unique to Ohio. Across the United States, public pension funds have persistently underperformed passive indexes since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. In fact, comparative research has found that U.S. public pension funds have underperformed their private-sector counterparts – and public pension systems in Canada and Europe – by approximately 50 basis points annually. You may be wondering where the teachers' unions are – why aren't they ringing alarm bells on behalf of the teachers? Sadly, teachers' unions haven't just failed to fix the system—they've helped break it. For decades, their representatives on the board of STRS have blocked transparency, resisted accountability, and vilified those who dared propose changes. In June, a union-backed slate of STRS board candidates campaigned on promises of reform. Yet once elected, they quickly embraced the status quo—rubber-stamping staff bonuses and calling for a taxpayer-funded bailout. In response, the legislature began to take meaningful action, restructuring the board and passing a budget that initiates a transition to a flat income tax—important steps toward protecting Ohio taxpayers. But these initial reforms must be followed by stronger measures, including demands for full transparency and accountability from STRS. The situation in Ohio is dire and taxpayers there must be warned of what's likely to come. Also: Taxpayers in all states deserve to know that a bailout in Ohio will likely be the start of a wave that spreads across the country. Other state pension funds are watching, and a taxpayer bailout in one state will set a terrible, expensive precedent. Meanwhile, the message of a bailout to irresponsible bureaucrats is unconscionable: Mismanage billions, ignore your fiduciary duty, and you'll still get paid – just pass the bill to taxpayers. Fortunately, there is an alternative to this doomsday scenario of taxpayer bailouts. Transparent, passive investment strategies – like those used by many of the world's best-run funds – can and should replace unnecessarily risky investment strategies. State legislatures across the country, starting in Ohio, must act now to protect taxpayers from the $1.3 trillion hole in America's public-employee pensions.
Yahoo
04-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amid STRS board changes, watchdog group raises concerns
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A retirees' watchdog group said Ohio politicians are trying to block transparency at the State Teachers Retirement System by silencing the voice of teachers and replacing educators on the STRS board with political appointees. There have been several years of chaos at the massive pension system, with retired teachers denied cost-of-living increases and the Ohio attorney general filing a civil complaint against two board members. Columbus to get pro spring football team in 2026, will play at Historic Crew Stadium Much of the power struggle can be traced to a 2020 investment proposal from a private investment entity known as QED. For the first time, one of the founders of QED, JD Tremmel, goes on the record. Tremmel co-founded the private investment group. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said QED then teamed up with some STRS board members as part of an attempted hostile takeover of the $96 billion pension fund. However, Tremmel said they didn't want to 'take over' STRS – they wanted to save it from politicians and poor investments. 'I would say it's not about me or QED or anything of that sort,' Tremmel said. 'It's about the teachers.' Tremmel knows that Ohio's retired teachers have gone years without promised annual cost-of-living increases, and he believes it's because their pension fund underperforms the market. 'And they deserve better than this,' he said. 'I mean, they deserve to have what they were promised, and under the current format, unless the taxpayers of the state of Ohio bail them out with $15 million a day, it's not going to happen.' Tremmel believes the STRS pension is poorly invested and not sustainable. Amid Guardians investigation, DeWine calls for end to sports prop bets in Ohio 'They're underperforming by the amount of their fees and trading costs, plus a little bit in the alternatives,' he said. 'I mean, it's difficult to be uniquely stupid somehow. It's difficult to be uniquely smart.' As part of a proposal made by QED in 2020, instead of having the internal STRS investment staff control the billions in retirement funds, transfer some of the pension money to better-performing index funds. When asked, Tremmel admitted that part of the motivation behind QED's involvement was to make money for the firm. 'Most certainly there's an economic component of it,' he said. 'The, the discussions we had had with board members, we weren't going to receive any fixed fees, which is simply a percentage of the profits above an index.' So QED would get paid when the investments performed better than the market. Tremmel said that last year, in the hands of the STRS staff, the pension fund performed nearly $1 billion below what it could have made through a passive index fund. In 2020, QED was pushing the index fund proposal through then-board member Wade Steen and current board president Dr. Rudy Fichtenbaum. Steen and Fichtenbaum are the targets of Yost's civil lawsuit, which claims they were working with QED for a hostile takeover of the fund. Tremmel admits communication with Steen, even texting during board meetings, which he admits was unusual. Dog missing since Lancaster floods found 'I'm not sure if it's inappropriate,' he said. 'I mean, I think from a fiduciary standpoint, they should rely upon people they believe who have an expertise in a subject matter. To the extent that we help educate board members about the issues, it STRS and, you know, encourage them to ask certain questions to gain more information. 'I mean, we're not going to apologize for that,' Tremmel added. 'We think that's the ethical thing to do.' New STRS CEO Stephen Toole had repeatedly turned down NBC4 interview requests, including not responding to a detailed list of questions due to pending litigation. However, STRS did release the following statement: 'STRS Ohio respects the legislature's decision to restructure the retirement board. We are committed to working with state lawmakers to ensure a smooth implementation while upholding our mission to provide Ohio's public educators a foundation for their financial security.' For more of Tremmel's interview, watch The Spectrum this Sunday at 10 a.m. on NBC4. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ohio lawmakers make last-minute teachers pension change to state budget
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The state budget passed on Wednesday includes a plan to overhaul the State Teachers' Retirement System (STRS), with critics saying it was done to effectively silence the voices of active and retired Ohio teachers. Just after 1 a.m. Wednesday, an amendment was added to the budget to change the makeup of the 11-member STRS board. Right now, the board includes seven elected teachers, but that would be cut to only three, with four new political appointees. The Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association said lawmakers want to ignore the needs of teachers and retirees who have successfully elected so-called 'reformers' to the STRS board during the last six elections. Ohio lawmakers pass $60 billion budget. Here's what's inside. They are demanding transparency in investments and a return of promised cost-of-living increases. 'We're not surprised that they would pull up, I don't know, I would call it a sleazy political stunt in in the dead of night,' Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association Executive Director Robin Rayfield said. 'They're not into transparency. You know, they're typical of government officials, one in the morning, decide that they're going to put something in the budget bill that has nothing to do with the budget but everything to do with destroying people's opportunity to be heard.' 'I'm all for reform, I've said it before, but this is not reform. I mean this is just a power grab,' Ohio Rep. Sean Brennan (D-Parma), a former teacher who sits on the Ohio House penison committee, said. Like Rayfield, Brennan was shocked to learn about the last-minute budget amendment, which will overhaul the 11-member board, currently ruled by a seven-seat teachers and retirees majority. 'When we're going from five contributing representatives down to two, and two retirees to one, that's a huge voice for the stakeholders who matter most on that board, and it's just a shame,' he said. Rare look inside the Longaberger Basket Building, an architectural marvel Republicans on the pension committee pushed through the change with no hearings to allow teachers and retirees to be heard. Retirees have gone years without promised cost-of-living increases, pointing out that the STRS investment staff sometimes doubles their salaries with unreasonable bonuses. Rayfield said it's time for teachers to elect lawmakers who represent their interests, and with STRS, vouchers, and cuts to education funding, he called Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine the worst governor for education in Ohio's history. There's still the possibility DeWine will use his line-item veto power to strike down the change, but Rayfield isn't optimistic. 'Well, that's not going to happen,' he said. 'He's been against the teachers. He's the worst education governor ever. He's had… the educators have taken the largest step back under his leadership than all the other governors combined.' A spokesman for DeWine said he stands by his record for supporting teachers and students, and he will examine every line item in the budget, including changes to STRS. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio retired teachers' pension fund hires new executive director
STRS Ohio meeting room. (Photo by Morgan Trau, WEWS.) The Ohio retired teachers' pension fund has hired a former pensions expert from North Carolina as its new executive director. Steven Toole, the previous head of the North Carolina Retirement Systems, will take over starting in mid-July. He grew up outside Columbus and went to Ohio State University, according to his candidate material records. 'My experience extends to working closely with boards and stakeholders to ensure transparency, accountability, and integrity — values central to State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) Ohio's guiding principles,' Toole wrote in a letter to a recruiter. Currently, he works as a senior product manager at Principal, a retirement and investment company. He also gets some income from Home Depot, according to an ethics filing. While working at the North Carolina retirement system, he managed a $100 billion pension system and $11.8 billion in defined contribution assets, serving approximately 1 million public employees, according to his candidate documents. He worked as the executive director of the North Carolina system from 2011 to 2019, when he was fired, the records request shows. According to Toole, in an email he sent to recruiter Dan Cummings, he stated that there were 'no performance issues at all,' and he didn't receive an explanation from the state treasurer as to why he was being removed. Cummings told a board member that the former North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell replaced Toole when he came into office, emails show. The candidate document shows that he was replaced with Folwell's 'hand-chosen successor.' However, Toole was replaced two years into the treasurer's term. Once this was brought up by a board member, according to emails, the new STRS head suggested that the reason may be related to the treasurer's 'cost-cutting platform.' More records are pending from the North Carolina Treasurer's Office. Following being let go from the North Carolina system, Toole then worked for Prudential Retirement. This was later bought out by another company, and his job was 'eliminated,' according to the documents. He worked in retirement benefits for nearly three decades at Nationwide Insurance before joining the North Carolina team, the documents show. His hiring comes after a year of controversy, during which the STRS board chair and one of the former board members were accused of participating in a $65 billion corruption scheme. The chair, Rudy Fichtenbaum, denies all allegations, and some retired educators are accusing Ohio Statehouse Republicans of trying to stop transparency. 'The high scrutiny and media attention surrounding STRS Ohio over the past eighteen months do not give me pause — rather, I see it as an opportunity to step into a leadership role, bring clarity, and strengthen trust among members, legislators, and stakeholders,' Toole wrote in his candidate document. There are mainly two defined factions of the STRS population: 'reformers' and those who want to keep the 'status quo.' In short, reformers want to switch to index funding, while 'status quo' individuals want to keep actively managing the funds. Recent elections have allowed the reform-minded members to have a majority of the board. Fichtenbaum and all of the reformers on the board voted in support of Toole, while each of the status quo members, including appointees, voted against him. The vote ended up being 6-5. The current acting executive director, Aaron Hood, was also given his notice at the meeting. Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on X and Facebook. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
