American Realty Capital Properties Inc. Restates Results and Q3 Earnings

American Realty Capital Properties stock jumped as much as 9% today following the announcement that the company has completed its filing restatements, released third-quarter 2014 earning results, and reported that it will release full-year 2014 results on March 31.

Despite the strong performance of the stock, however, the results of the audit committee's investigation were anything but favorable for ARCP. The investigation found that ARCP overstated AFFO -- a highly relied-upon cash flow metric for REITs -- not only in the first and second quarters of 2014, but in every year since the company went public in 2011. During the conference call following the announcement, the company's interim CEO, Bill Stanley, suggested that the investigation concluded that earning were, as initially suspected, intentionally overstated.

Here are the numbers: AFFO was overstated by $44 million ($0.20 per share) in 2013 and by $52 million ($0.08 per share) in the first two quarters of 2014.

According to the press release, the investigation also found that former executives had received "inappropriate" compensation -- which is unsurprising, given what we know now. The company suggested that it has recovered $8.5 million of these payments, but Stanley believes there's a silver lining:

Stanley went on to suggest that ARCP's board is currently searching for a permanent CEO, as well as a new chairman of the board.

Third-quarter resultsAs for the third quarter of 2014, the company reported AFFO of $0.26 per share. This exceeded Zack Investment Research's consensus estimates by $0.01 per share.

ARCP completed a sale of its "multi-tenant portfolio for approximately $1.9 billion to a Blackstone-DDR joint venture" on Oct. 17, 2014, and sold five additional properties. The transactions combined for net proceeds of $1.2 billion, which the company suggested was used to pay down debt.

Further, after the company announced that it had overstated earnings, its agreement to sell its subsidiary Cole Capital to RCS Capital fell through. This was resolved in December, with ARCP receiving a $60 million termination fee from RCS Capital.

Is it time to buy?To this point, ARCP has done all the right things. It quickly separated itself from the former management team and sold off assets to reduce debt levels. And while there is still work to be done, it's well on its way to resolving what has been a somewhat unbelievable situation.

It's also important to note that based on what we know today, there are no material changes to ARCP's real estate portfolio, which is well diversified by tenant, property type, and geography.

With that said, although it seems ARCP is trading at a significant discount, management is what will shape the company's culture and strategy, so without a CEO in place, I will not be investing in ARCP. I think there is certainly opportunity here, but I would much rather pay a premium for a company with a CEO I know and trust than buy into a company based solely on valuation.

The article American Realty Capital Properties Inc. Restates Results and Q3 Earnings originally appeared on Fool.com.

Dave Koppenheffer has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Bank of America. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Bank of America, and The Blackstone Group L.P. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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