CEO’s Stake and the Dustbowl of Self-Storage

In the parched earth of the self-storage industry, where fortunes are measured in cubic feet and padlock rentals, H. Michael Schwartz has planted his seed. The Chief Executive of SmartStop Self Storage REIT (SMA +1.56%) tilled the public market on November 17, 2025, purchasing 6,250 shares at $31.71 apiece – a $198,187.50 wager that this particular patch of commercial real estate might yet yield a harvest.

Harvest report

Measure	Grain	Wind direction
Shares sown	6,250	Open-market planting, November 17
Seed cost	$198,187.50	Priced at $31.71 per stalk (SEC Form 4)
After-planting holdings	174,370	Through trusts and LLC husks
Stalk value	$5.44 million	Market close November 17 ($31.20)

Seed price from SEC report; harvest valuation from November 17 closing bell.

Questions of the soil

What does this planting say of Schwartz’s field?
No direct stalks remain in his personal furrow. Ownership now flows through Churchill TRI LLC’s irrigation channels and the 2011 Irrevocable Trusts’ aquifers.
How does this compare to past seasons?
A modest crop – half the median 12,125 shares he’s historically cultivated. The man plants cautiously, like a farmer testing dry ground.
What weather surrounds this sowing?
Purchased at $31.71, when the day’s closing price stood at $31.82. By November 22, the stock had sunk to $31.20 – a gentle frost.
Do these trust-owned roots run deep?
Though his name bears no stalks directly, Schwartz’s vines stretch through legal trellises. The Form 4’s footnotes reveal tendrils gripping substantial fruit.

Land assessment

Topography	Yield
Market acreage	$1.76 billion
Annual crop (TTM)	$263.34 million
Net gain (TTM)	($5.43 million)

Surveyor’s notes

Operates 227 storage barns across 26 states, offering shelter to the displaced possessions of modern life.
Builds digital fences around its operations, claiming technological superiority in a world of rusted padlocks.
Feeds both households and enterprises from its storage silos.

SmartStop cultivates a continent-spanning orchard of self-storage facilities, its branches heavy with the detritus of American excess. The company’s gospel preaches salvation through technology – apps to unlock units, sensors to monitor dust accumulation, algorithms to price cubic footage. Yet beneath this digital canopy, the soil remains stubbornly traditional.

Harvest predictions

Men sell land when they see drought coming, but buy when they smell rain. Schwartz’s purchase whispers of impending storms – or perhaps the scent of wet earth after years of dust. His optimism grows not from recent fruit, for third-quarter revenue swelled merely 2.5% year-over-year. No, his hope springs from the acquisition of Argus Professional Storage Management – a second-hand combine harvester now grafted onto SmartStop’s stalks.

While topline growth walks with a limp, the bottom line gallops. Funds from operations – the REIT farmer’s true measure of fertility – blossomed $15.8 million to $27.5 million in the third quarter. It’s as if the land itself remembers how to drink rain.

Glossary of the land

Open-market purchase: Buying stalks in the public market, not through secret barn deals.

Direct ownership: Stalks held in one’s own name, not through corporate scarecrows.

Indirect ownership: Harvest rights passed through trusts and LLCs – the farmer’s inheritance maze.

Insider: A man who knows which way the wind blows before the rest of the village.

Insider alignment: When the farmer’s wealth grows or withers with the same rains as his neighbors.

Form 4: The harvest report card, filed with the grain inspectors.

Irrevocable trust: A legal silo where grain cannot be removed, only its yield consumed.

Dividend yield: The measure of corn returned to those who store their wealth in stalks.

REIT: A land trust that pays no tax so long as it gives away most of its harvest.

TTM: The last twelve moons’ worth of agricultural records.

And so the CEO plants his 6,250 seeds in cracked earth, trusting the rains will come. Whether this is a fool’s gamble or a sage’s foresight, only time’s harvest will tell 🐦.

2025-11-23 20:21