UDR, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the UDR Inc. 4th Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Trent Trujillo, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you, Trent. You may begin.

Welcome to UDR's quarterly financial results conference call. Our press release and supplemental disclosure package were distributed yesterday afternoon and posted to the investor relations section of our website, ir.udr.com. In the supplement, we have reconciled all non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure in accordance with Reg G requirements. Statements made during this call which are not historical may constitute forward-looking statements. Although we believe the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurances that our expectations will be met. A discussion of risks and risk factors are detailed in our press release and included in our filings with the SEC. We do not undertake a duty to update any forward-looking statements. When we get to the question and answer portion, we ask that you be respectful of everyone's time and limit your questions to one plus a follow-up. Management will be available after the call for your questions that did not get answered during the Q&A session today. I will now turn the call over to UDR's Chairman and CEO, Tom Toomey.

Thank you, Trent, and welcome to UDR's fourth quarter 2022 conference call. Presenting on the call with me today are President and Chief Financial Officer Joe Fisher and Senior Vice President of Operations Mike Lacey, who will discuss our results. Senior Officers Andrew Cantor and Chris Van Enns will also be available during the Q&A portion of the call. To begin, 2022 was an exceptional year for UDR. First, our same store revenue growth was near the top of the sector, and we achieved record high full year same store NOI growth of 14% and FFO a per share growth of 16%. Second, we further advanced our already industry leading operating platform by investing in our people, which included establishing a 16 person task force to generate and execute innovation initiatives. Additionally, we engaged in various prop tech and climate tech investments. Together, these resources should further expand our peer-leading operating margin into the future. Third, we adhered to the capital market signals, growing opportunistically when our equity was attractively priced early in the year and actively pivoting to a capital light strategy when our cost of capital increased. Being a good steward of your capital is paramount. Fourth, while we had next to zero debt maturities in 2022, we continue to reduce leverage, strengthen our balance sheet, and enhance our liquidity. And last, we were honored to be recognized by a variety of organizations for our ongoing commitment to our associates, stakeholders, and the environment. These include UDR earned a five-star ESG designation from Gresby, the highest rating possible. The company was named by Newsweek as one of America's most responsible companies for the second year in a row. And institutional investors recognize our ESG program, our board, IRR team, and numerous executives being top three in their respective categories among all U.S. REITs. In short, we have the right strategy and leadership in place to continue to propel UDR forward. Looking ahead to 2023, we are very aware of the wide range of economic scenarios that are forecasted to play out. But we build our strategy around diversification and the ability to perform in any environment. This is well demonstrated by our history of cash flow growth and TSR outperformance specifically an 11% TSR compounded annual growth rate over my 22 years at UDR. The constant over this time is our focus on what we can control and how that sets up for relative long-term outperformance. This includes, first, the strong relative setup of U.S. multifamily industries. Housing is a needs-based business, supply is stable, demand and traffic remain healthy, job growth has remained positive, rent to income levels are steady, and relative affordability versus single-family ownership and rentership remain near all-time highs, while the cost of capital across the industry continues to improve. Second, the favorable setup for UDR within the industry. We entered 2023 with approximately 5% earnings, the second highest amongst our peers and the highest in UDR's history. Innovation initiatives and prudent capital allocation should enhance this growth through margin yield expansion. Furthermore, our balance sheet remains highly liquid with one billion of capacity and we have no debt maturing until 2024. And finally, We increased our dividend by a robust 10.5% this year, enhancing our already strong return profile. Taken together, we feel confident that we will effectively manage whatever macro environment we face and continue to produce strong absolute and relative results. In closing, I'm very optimistic on the relative strength of the multifamily industry and UDR's relative advantages within the industry. We have a strong, talented, experienced and innovative team with a track record of strong relative performance. The key that unlocks our potential is our drive to continue to listen to our associates, our customers, and stakeholders, which enables us to determine where we excel, where we can improve, and how we can better innovate for the future. To my fellow associates, thank you for all you did during 2022, again, to make UDR a successful year. And I look forward to what will come in 2023. With that, I will turn the call over to Mike.