Why Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Stock Cratered 10% at the Open Today

Shares of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (NYSE: SKT), a real estate investment trust (REIT), fell 10% within the first hour of trading on Wednesday. The update on first-quarter earnings came after the close on Monday, with the company discussing the results on Tuesday. The news wasn't very good, and the stock basically continued to lose ground a day after the release.

Tanger's first-quarter numbers weren't actually all that bad, with funds from operations (FFO), which are like earnings for an industrial company, coming in at $0.50 per share, down just $0.07 over the same quarter in 2019. But the government effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 was the bigger story, since it resulted in the shutdown of Tanger's outlet centers. Realizing that the hit to the retailers in its portfolio of properties would be severe, Tanger allowed its tenants to defer April and May rents. It announced that it collected just 12% of April rents and didn't provide any update on May.

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Source Fool.com