REITs roaring in Feb

Serenity Alternative Investments flagged data centers as the primary winners behind February’s rebound and said Equinix was its most profitable position for the month. (serenityalts.com) Equinix’s Feb. 11 earnings release framed 2026 as a year of accelerating AI deployment and provided full‑year revenue guidance of $10.12–$10.22 billion, a projection that analysts and markets cited when bidding the stock higher after the call. (newsroom.equinix.com; zacks.com) Wall Street followed with price‑target raises and ratings changes—Barclays lifted its EQIX target to $1,020 while other brokers (including Wells Fargo and Citigroup) moved to overweight/buy stances after Equinix’s guidance and results. (marketbeat.com; marketbeat.com) Healthcare REITs handed investors mixed but mostly bullish 2026 guidance: Welltower projected same‑store NOI growth of 11.25%–15.75%, Ventas reported SHOP same‑store cash NOI above 15% and total‑company NOI growth around 15%, and American Healthcare REIT issued same‑store NOI guidance of 7%–11% for the year. (finance.yahoo.com; ir.ventasreit.com; prnewswire.com) Market research pieces and sector roundups are explicitly positioning REITs as candidates to outperform once Fed easing expectations firm up, naming perennial income names like Realty Income and storage/data‑center plays as top picks into a rate‑cut cycle. (marketbeat.com; investing.com) Macro research and backtests circulated this month argue that in a disinflationary setup real‑asset yield and dividend potential can outperform traditional inflation hedges such as TIPS and gold, a line of argument analysts are citing when pivoting client allocations toward REIT exposure. (jpmorgan.com; inflation.live)