One-glance verdict
Within fair range
$264.78 our estimate vs market $300.76
Wall Street consensus: $337.56 (27.5% higher than our fair-value estimate)
14% above our estimate
Fundamentals snapshot
Public Storage
PSA · NYQ · Real Estate · REIT - Industrial
Current price
$300.76
52-week range
$256.54 - $335.55
Market cap
$56.20B
Balance sheet
Stretched
7.42x Adequate
Net debt $9.92B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
3 Risks
3 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 1.4% last year.
- Reward Returns 21.9% on equity, ahead of 83% of its peers.
- Risk Forward P/E (29.4x) is higher than trailing (28.1x) - earnings are expected to drop.
- Risk Net debt grew 63.0% over 3 years.
What this company does
Public Storage
Public Storage is a special type of real estate company called a REIT (a company that owns properties and must pay out most of its rental income to shareholders), making its money by owning and operating thousands of self-storage facilities across the country. Its primary business involves collecting monthly rent from a huge base of customers, which creates a steady and predictable stream of income because people consistently need space to store their things. The company also owns a significant piece of a similar self-storage business in Europe, adding to its overall size and reach.
How the company got here
Public Storage was founded in 1972 by B. Wayne Hughes and Kenneth Volk Jr. with a single location in Southern California. They saw a growing need for people to have extra space for their belongings. The company grew rapidly by using a financing method called real estate limited partnerships, which allowed them to raise money from investors to build new facilities. In 1995, the company restructured to become a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), a type of company that owns and often operates income-producing real estate. Today, it is the largest owner and operator of self-storage facilities in the United States.
What it actually does
Public Storage provides storage spaces for individuals and businesses to rent on a month-to-month basis. Think of it as renting a garage or a closet that's not attached to your home. Customers use these spaces to store a wide variety of items, from furniture and household goods during a move to excess inventory for a small business. The company's facilities are a common sight with their distinctive orange doors. Beyond just renting space, they also offer related products and services to their customers.
Self-Storage Operations
This is the company's main business, making up the vast majority of its revenue. Public Storage owns and operates thousands of self-storage facilities across the United States. Customers, who can be individuals or businesses, pay a monthly rent for exclusive access to a storage unit of a specific size. The company makes money from the rent collected from millions of customers across its many locations.
Ancillary Businesses
As a smaller part of its business, Public Storage offers other related products and services to its storage customers. This includes selling moving and packing supplies like boxes and locks. Another key part of this segment is offering tenant insurance to protect the belongings that customers store in their units. While much smaller than the storage rental business, these offerings provide additional convenience for customers and another source of income for the company.
Third-Party Management
Public Storage also manages self-storage facilities that are owned by other people or companies. In this arrangement, the property owner pays Public Storage a fee to handle the day-to-day operations, like renting units, collecting payments, and maintaining the property. This allows the company to earn money using its brand recognition and operational expertise without having to buy the properties itself. This is a growing part of their business.
Investment in Shurgard
Public Storage owns a significant stake (a 35% common equity interest) in Shurgard Self Storage, a leading self-storage company in Western Europe. This investment gives Public Storage a share of the profits from Shurgard's European operations without having to manage the facilities directly. It's a way for the company to have a presence and benefit from the self-storage market outside of the United States.
What management is betting on now
The company's current strategy focuses on accelerating growth through several key initiatives. This includes improving the customer experience with better technology and digital tools. They are also focused on acquiring other self-storage companies and developing new properties to expand their market share. Management is also aiming to operate more efficiently to increase their profit margins (the portion of sales that turns into profit). A recent major move was the decision to relocate their corporate headquarters to Texas to tap into a different talent pool.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
Revenue
$1.23B
Net income
$499.96M
Diluted EPS
2.55
Operating cash flow
$868.44M
Free cash flow
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Sources
Revenue
$1.22B
Net income
$526.27M
Diluted EPS
2.71
Operating cash flow
$694.80M
Free cash flow
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Sources
Revenue
$1.22B
Net income
$507.07M
Diluted EPS
2.59
Operating cash flow
$733.59M
Free cash flow
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Revenue
$1.22B
Net income
$511.06M
Diluted EPS
2.62
Operating cash flow
$875.09M
Free cash flow
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Revenue
$1.20B
Net income
$358.42M
Diluted EPS
1.76
Operating cash flow
$872.71M
Free cash flow
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Revenue
$1.18B
Net income
$407.79M
Diluted EPS
2.04
Operating cash flow
$705.06M
Free cash flow
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Revenue
$1.18B
Net income
$614.61M
Diluted EPS
3.22
Operating cash flow
$768.62M
Free cash flow
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Revenue
$1.19B
Net income
$430.33M
Diluted EPS
2.16
Operating cash flow
$798.77M
Free cash flow
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Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $264.78 vs current price $300.76
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $337.56 (27.5% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $264.78 a share — about 12.0% away from today's price of $300.76, so the stock currently looks fairly priced.
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $9.9B. Interest coverage 7.4x.
Net debt
$9.92B
Interest coverage
7.42x
Public Storage's profit covers its interest bill about 7.4 times over. which is stronger than every peer shown here.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
PSA
BASELINE
Public Storage
Total debt $10.18B Interest coverage 7.42x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $14.41B Interest coverage 2.34x -68% vs PSA Carries about 3.2x less debt cushion than PSA.
Total debt $3.54B Interest coverage 3.93x -47% vs PSA Carries about 1.9x less debt cushion than PSA.
Total debt $8.15B Interest coverage 1.28x -83% vs PSA Carries about 5.8x less debt cushion than PSA.
Total debt $2.01B Interest coverage 1.72x -77% vs PSA Carries about 4.3x less debt cushion than PSA.
Total debt $5.72B Interest coverage 3.34x -55% vs PSA Carries about 2.2x less debt cushion than PSA.
What you should know
The case for and against PSA
3 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 1.4% last year.
-
Returns 21.9% on equity, ahead of 83% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 4/10 years.
Risks
-
Forward P/E (29.4x) is higher than trailing (28.1x) - earnings are expected to drop.
-
Net debt grew 63.0% over 3 years.
-
Stock trades 16.5% above its 5-year average P/E.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
28.08x
Forward P/E
29.41x
P/B
10.91x
P/S
11.44x
EV/EBITDA
19.24x
PEG ratio
4.62x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
74.4%
Operating margin
45.7%
Net margin
41.6%
ROE
21.9%
ROA
7.0%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
1.10x
Current ratio
0.22x
Quick ratio
0.13x
Total debt
$10.18B
Total cash
$259.94M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$4.89B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
9.0%
EPS TTM
10.71
EPS 5Y CAGR
-27.4%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$3.17B
Free CF TTM
$2.90B
FCF margin
59.2%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
4.1%
Payout ratio
114.5%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-15