Builders, REITs Among S&P’s Best Performers

Reuters Toll Brothers is selling unbuilt luxury homes in California.

Companies in the home building industry and real estate investment trusts are among the best performers in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index today.

In the homebuidling category:

Weyerhaeuser (WY), the producer of lumber, was up nearly 3%. On Thursday, Citigroup Analyst Anthony Pettinari wrote that Weyerhaeuser could sell its homebuilder unit for between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion, and interested buyers in the unit, WRECO, could include Lennar (LEN), Toll Brothers (TOL) and Brookfield Residential Properties (BRP). About 67% of the Weyerhaeuser unit’s roughly 27,000 lots are in California. Citi has a Buy rating on Weyerhauser and a $35 price target. Lennar, the home builder, was up 2.6%. Masco (MAS), the building materials maker, was up 2%.  PulteGroup (PHM), the home builder, was up 2%. DR Horton (DHI), the home builder, was up 1.9%.

Among real estate trusts:

American Tower  (AMT), the diversified  REIT, is the best performer in the index. It was up 4.6% after saying Friday it will buy the parent of tower operator Global Tower Partners for $4.8 billion. HCP (HCP), a healthcare REIT, was up 3.3%. Prologis (PLD) an industrial REIT, was up 2.8%. Vornado Realty Trust (VNO) was up 2.7%. Boston Properties (BXP), the office REIT, was up 2.3%. Equity Residential (EQR), a residential REIT, was up 2.4%. Ventas (VTR), a healthcare REIT, was up 2%.