Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. ARE reported third-quarter 2017 adjusted FFO of $1.51 per share. The figure surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny. Moreover, adjusted FFO per share compares favorably with the prior-year quarter tally of $1.39.Results reflect continued growth in rental rate and net operating income (NOI), driven by higher internal and external growth.Total revenues for the quarter jumped 23.9% year over year to $285.4 million. In addition, the figure comfortably surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $210.9 million.Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. QuoteBehind the Headline NumbersAlexandria’s total leasing activity aggregated around 786,925 million rentable square feet (RSF) of space during the quarter. The company carried out lease renewals and re-leasing of space at a rental rate increase of 24.2% and 10% (cash basis) in the reported quarter. In addition, key leases executed in the reported quarter included 130,803 RSF leased to Facebook, Inc. and 17,620 RSF leased to ClubCorp Holdings, Inc.On a year-over-year basis, same-property NOI grew 2.2%. It climbed 7.8% on a cash basis. As of third-quarter 2017, occupancy for operating properties in North America expanded 40 basis points (bps) sequentially to 96.1%.As of third-quarter 2017, investment-grade tenants accounted for 50% of annual rental revenues in effect. Furthermore, 78% of the annual rental revenues are from Class A properties in AAA locations.LiquidityAlexandria exited the third quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $118.6 million, down from $124.9 million recorded at the end of the prior quarter. The company ended the reported quarter with $1.7 billion of liquidity.Our ViewpointUrban office real estate investment trust (REIT), Alexandria, enjoys high occupancy stemmed by high demand for its Class A properties in premium locations. Prudent capital allocation to strategic development projects has enabled the company to create a high leased value-creating pipeline. Recently, Alexandria announced that it has 100% pre-leased 100 Binney Street, a ground-up development project spanning 431,000 RSF of space. Also, the company has adequate financial flexibility to enhance its market position.Nevertheless, the company is disposing non-core operating assets and non-strategic land parcels to finance its development and redevelopment projects.Alexandria currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.The stock has climbed 9.5% year to date, outperforming 2.5% growth recorded by the industry it belongs to.We now look forward to the earnings releases of other REITs like HCP, Inc. HCP, Federal Realty Investment Trust FRT and Extra Space Storage Inc EXR. HCP, Inc. is slated to report results on Nov 2, while Federal Realty Investment Trust and Extra Space Storage are scheduled to release its numbers on Nov 1.Note: FFO, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income.Wall Street’s Next AmazonZacks EVP Kevin Matras believes this familiar stock has only just begun its climb to become one of the greatest investments of all time. It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in pure genius.Click for details >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRT): Free Stock Analysis Report HCP, Inc. (HCP): Free Stock Analysis Report Extra Space Storage Inc (EXR): Free Stock Analysis Report Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (ARE): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research