Phillips Edison & Co. (PECO) – Quiet Strength from a Reliable Income Name
While much of the market struggled to find footing last week, real estate quietly posted gains — and one name in particular is beginning to stand out. Phillips Edison, a REIT focused on grocery-anchored shopping centers, is showing signs of a bullish technical breakout while continuing to offer a steady dividend yield of about 3.3%.
The company owns and operates neighborhood centers with major tenants like Trader Joe’s, Sprouts, and Safeway — the kind of everyday-traffic retail that tends to hold up regardless of what’s happening in tech or macro headlines. With consumer staples still proving resilient, this kind of tenant mix is a positive.
PECO just reported fourth-quarter results that narrowly beat expectations, posting core FFO of $0.66 per share on $187.6 million in revenue. That’s slightly ahead of the $0.65 and $167.6 million that analysts were looking for. Nothing flashy, but consistent — and that’s part of the appeal here.
Technically, the stock is starting to break out of a textbook base pattern and now trades around $38. Wolfe Research recently pointed out the setup, noting that investors might want to take advantage of any short-term pullbacks as the stock approaches a retest of the $40 level.
Analyst sentiment is mixed, with the average price target sitting just above $40, implying modest upside. But for income-focused investors, that’s only part of the story. With a reliable yield, a solid tenant base, and technical strength starting to build, PECO looks like a name worth watching closely — especially if the broader market remains volatile and investors continue to rotate into quality real assets
