The relative performance of green REITs: Evidence from financial analysts’ forecasts and abnormal returns

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze and compare the financial analysts’ forecasts accuracy and bias, and the abnormal earnings announcement returns of “green” and “non-green” U.S. real estate investment trusts (REITs) from 2010 to 2018. First, we document the accuracy and the bias of financial analysts’ earnings and FFO forecasts on “green” and “non-green” REITs. Our results report that the level of accuracy and the level of optimism are different for both categories. Second, we observe that abnormal stock returns could be related to the adoption of “green” and sustainable measures. Our results shed a new light on the relative performance of REITs and highlight the potential link in the U.S. REIT industry between “greenness” analysts’ forecasts and abnormal returns on stock markets.