GEO

"Mad Money" host Jim Cramer rings the lightning round bell, which means he's giving his answers to callers' stock questions at rapid speed.

On another choppy week, U.S. equity markets finished mostly lower despite a solid slate of economic data and assurances from the Federal Reserve that it would keep interest rates near-zero indefinitely.Declining for the third-straight week following a six-week winning streak, the S&P 500 dipped another 1.0% this week and is now roughly 7% below its recent all-time highs.An encouraging slate of dividend news and rent collection updates buoyed real estate equities this week, particularly the more beaten-down property sectors, including malls, hotels, student housing, and mortgage REITs.After the Equity REIT sector was slammed by a wave of 64 dividend cuts in March through June, since then, we've seen far more dividend increases than dividend cuts in the REIT sector, including five more boosts from equity REITs and three from mortgage REITs this week.Housing Heats-Up: Homebuilder Sentiment jumped to the strongest levels on record in September, driven by a surge in Home Buyer Traffic, which far exceeded previous record levels as inventory levels remain historically tight.

Over the last several years we've seen larger equity REITs consistently outperform, but the gap becomes even larger with the recession.Tiny equity REITs trade at lower multiples FFO and AFFO, but that shouldn't be your only criteria.Tiny equity REITs have dramatically worse margins across key metrics.Tiny equity REITs have dramatically higher leverage, putting them in a much worse position whenever the economy slides into a recession.Investors are finally realizing that mortgage REITs are for trading, but they still think if they buy-and-hold crap equity REITs it will work out great.

GEO intends to repay $100 million debt in FY2020 and plans to delever by $50-100 million annually starting in 2021.The dividend cut and contemplated asset sales should help meet the deleveraging goal.GEO has additional room to cut the dividend and reserve the right to follow CoreCivic's de-REIT strategy to enhance financial flexibility.While the initial cut isn't aggressive enough, I think it's a good first step to take.GEO's 5.125% 2023 note is yielding +13% despite being pari passu with other three unsecured notes.

Retail Value Inc. again showed top-broker estimated-net gains of 143.49%, while FibraHotel had the top yield (at a sub$1 price) out of 350 U.S. Real Estate Investment Trusts per YCharts 8/26/20.Top 10 net-gainers NREF, ARI, STWD, CHMI, APTS, SACH, AFIN, LADR, ANH, and RVI ranged 24.55%-143.49% 8/26/20. The top 46 US REITs by yield represented 8 of 9 REIT industries.Top US 46 REITs by Yield ranged 8.12%-19.84%. Top ten, ARR, CIM, ORC, ACRE, ARI, RVI, KLPEF, SVC, GEO, and TWO averaged 15.22% yield.32 Top US REITs by broker estimated one-year upsides ranged 1.71% to 129.07%. Top ten, AFIN, BRT, RLJ, RC, LADR, SPG, SVC, ORC, GEO, and RVI, averaged 51.20% upside.$5k invested in the lowest-priced five August top-yield US Real Estate Investment Trusts showed 21.25% LESS net gain than that from $5k invested in all ten. Bigger, higher-priced REITs topped the pack August 26.

While some investors are already well versed in financial metrics (hat tip), this article is for those who would like...

Growth-oriented firm sells 2 REITs, buys 2 RV companies