Americold Realty Trust Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

Americold raised its 2026 AFFO guidance to $1.26–$1.32 per share after second-quarter AFFO of $0.35 per share exceeded expectations.

Management cited improving occupancy, pricing, throughput and cost controls.

Physical occupancy rose more than 200 basis points sequentially and nearly 300 basis points year over year, while improved customer wins and fixed-commitment contracts supported revenue stability and pricing.

The planned $1.3 billion EQT joint venture is expected to close in the third quarter, with proceeds earmarked to repay about $1.1 billion of debt, reducing borrowings by roughly 25% and lowering leverage.

Americold Realty Trust NYSE: COLD raised its full-year adjusted funds from operations outlook after reporting second-quarter performance that Chief Executive Officer Rob Chambers said exceeded expectations, citing improving occupancy, pricing and throughput trends across its temperature-controlled warehouse network.

The company increased its 2026 AFFO guidance to $1.26 to $1.32 per share, a $0.04 increase at the midpoint.

Chambers said the higher outlook comes despite an estimated $0.05 per-share dilutive effect from Americold’s planned joint venture with EQT.

Second-quarter AFFO totaled $0.35 per share, ahead of expectations, according to Chambers.

He said the result marked the fourth consecutive quarter in which the company met or exceeded analyst consensus.

Chambers said physical occupancy increased by more than 200 basis points sequentially in the second quarter, despite what is typically a flat-to-down seasonal period for inventories.

Physical occupancy also increased nearly 300 basis points from a year earlier.

Economic occupancy rose year over year, while the gap between physical and economic occupancy narrowed by 240 basis points to 860 basis points.

Chambers characterized the current gap as a healthier and more sustainable long-term level.

The company attributed the physical-occupancy improvement to new customer wins, market-share gains and volumes ramping into its facilities.

Chambers said Americold won a record amount of new business last year and is now seeing inventory associated with those wins enter its network.

He also pointed to customer demand for service reliability as smaller, capital-constrained competitors face operational challenges.

Americold’s churn rate was 2.1% during the quarter, while 58% of storage revenue came from fixed commitments.

All of the company’s top 25 customers, representing more than half of total revenue, use its fixed-commitment contract structure.

Storage and handling pricing both increased year over year in the quarter.

In response to questions, Chambers said higher power surcharges were a major factor in the improvement in storage revenue per pallet, as the company passes through increased energy costs under contractual mechanisms.

Chief Financial Officer Chris Papa said Americold now expects same-store economic occupancy for the full year to range from roughly 100 basis points higher to 200 basis points lower than the prior year.

The company had previously expected economic occupancy to be flat to down as much as 300 basis points.

Papa said same-store revenue is expected to be approximately flat to slightly positive for the year.

Americold received regulatory approval during the quarter to proceed with its previously announced $1.3 billion strategic joint venture with EQT and expects the transaction to close in the ...