Why Investors Were Bailing on Easterly Government Properties Stock Today

Few investors were happy with Thursday's stock market decline, but we should spare a thought or two for Easterly Government Properties (NYSE: DEA) shareholders.

After all, the specialty real estate investment trust (REIT) had two quite discouraging pieces of news to report. Largely because of that, at the end of the day's trading session Easterly stock had lost nearly 14% of its value.

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Reversal in sentiment

Just after market close on Wednesday, Easterly spilled the uncomfortable news that it was both enacting a reverse stock split and cutting its dividend.

The reverse stock split will be made at a 1-to-2.5 ratio and take place on Monday, April 28. The company's quarterly payout will be lowered by almost $0.09 per share from the previous amount of just under $0.27. The reduced distribution is to be handed out on May 17 to investors of record as of May 5.

It is to be exactly $0.18 per share, which adjusts to $0.45 when factoring in the reverse stock split.

In its press release divulging the news, Easterly gamely tried to spin the dividend cut. The REIT quoted CEO Darrell Crate as saying that "We have positioned the dividend yield relative to peers to be attractive to the capital markets." "We have reset the payout ratios so that the cash flow from our business is expected to provide a meaningful amount of capital for us to harvest our growing pipeline," Crate added.

A damaging one-two punch

While management gets points for trying, there's really no way to effectively spin either a reverse stock split -- a tactic typically used by companies in difficult straits -- or a substantial dividend cut. Easterly is now on the hook to prove to the market that this will benefit its business and that it can recover before long.

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Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Easterly Government Properties. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.