COPT Defense Properties

COPT Defense Properties, formerly Corporate Office Properties Trust, is a real estate investment trust (REIT). A REIT is a property company that must pay out at least 90% of its taxable income to shareholders. COPT Defense owns, runs and develops buildings next to, and sometimes inside, key U.S. defense installations. Its tenants include the U.S. Government and defense contractors working on intelligence, cybersecurity, missile defense and space missions in Maryland, Northern Virginia, Washington, DC, Huntsville, Alabama and San Antonio, Texas.

It earns money mainly from rent. As of December 31, 2025, its Defense/IT Portfolio held 201 operating properties totaling 23.2 million square feet, mostly offices plus data center shells. A data center shell is the land, core building and basic power. The tenant pays for the heavy-duty power, fiber and equipment inside. Tenants often pay for secure rooms, backup power and access controls, which the company believes make them less likely to leave.

Of $763.9 million in 2025 revenue, the Defense/IT Portfolio produced $646.9 million, or 84.7%. It also made up 90.3% of annualized rental revenue, meaning the yearly rent from leases in place. The Other segment, six office buildings in the Washington, DC/Baltimore area that the company intends to sell, produced 9.8%. The company also controls about 1,000 acres that could support roughly 10.6 million square feet of new buildings.

• In Q2 FY2026 (ended Jun 30, 2026), revenue was $197.4M, up 3.9% from a year earlier, and net income was $46.2M (+21.0%).
• For fiscal 2025, revenue was $763.9M (+1.4% year over year; +5.6% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 19.9% net margin.

• Over FY2021–FY2025: $0.00 in buybacks and $642.8M in dividends.
• Regular dividend per share increased 3 years in a row.
• Regular dividends per share grew +2.1% a year over 5 years (FY2020–FY2025).
• Dividends took 90% of earnings and 47.3% of free cash flow in the latest fiscal year.
• Shares outstanding changed +1.0% from Jul 22, 2021 to Jul 20, 2026.

Rank among 1514 US companies

Market value at each year end

COPT Defense Properties’s market value went from $2.88B at the end of 2023 to $3.80B on Oct 28, 2026, up 32%; since the end of 2025 it is up 21%.

Form 4 filings from 2025-10-30 to 2026-10-30 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 3 sales ($1.3M).

Large shareholders (13G filings)

ETFs with the most weight in CDP

1. Heavy reliance on U.S. defense spending. The U.S. Government and its defense contractors are the core tenants. Budget cuts, long government shutdowns or changes at the defense bases that drive demand could mean lost rent, non-renewals or fewer new leases.
2. Data center growth tied to one customer. Data center shells, centered in Northern Virginia, are a main source of new development. These projects depend on a single customer. Losing future deals with it, or running short of suitable land, could slow growth.
3. Concentrated in the Washington-Baltimore region. Many properties are grouped in the Mid-Atlantic, especially Greater Washington, DC/Baltimore, and in certain business parks. A local economic or property-market slump there could hurt results more than at a more spread-out REIT.
4. Building before space is fully leased. In some locations the company builds before space is fully leased because it expects government or contractor demand. It had five properties under development as of December 31, 2025. If demand falls short, new space could sit empty.
5. Office trends and hard-to-sell buildings. Remote work and other office trends could reduce demand. The company plans to sell six non-core office buildings (9.7% of annualized rent as of December 31, 2025), but property sales can be slow.
6. Debt load and credit rating. Total debt was about $2.59 billion against $1.53 billion of equity as of June 30, 2026. Growth relies on outside capital, and a credit rating downgrade could make borrowing costlier and harder.

• Oct 29, 2026 Quarterly results released
• Jul 27, 2026 Quarterly results released
• May 20, 2026 Shareholder vote results
• Apr 27, 2026 Quarterly results released
• Feb 5, 2026 Quarterly results released
• Feb 4, 2026 Executive or board change
• Oct 30, 2025 Quarterly results released

Dividends per share held at $1.10 from 2020 through 2022. They then rose three years in a row, to $1.14, $1.18 and $1.22 in 2023–2025. That works out to about 2.1% a year since 2020. The 2023 increase came in a year with a net loss. In 2025, dividends equaled about 90% of earnings but only 47.3% of free cash flow. REIT earnings subtract depreciation, a noncash cost, so cash flow often gives a clearer view of whether the dividend is covered. The yield was 3.79% as of October 28, 2026. There were no buybacks (share repurchases) from 2021 to 2025, and the share count rose about 1% between July 2021 and July 2026.

CDP's price history covers only about 3.1 years as of October 28, 2026. It shows nothing about the 2008 financial crisis, the 2020 COVID crash or the 2022 bear market. Its worst peak-to-trough drop in that span was 23.6%. As a single stock, CDP carries more risk than a diversified fund.