Preferred Apartment Communities, Inc. reported results for the quarter ended March 31, 2020. Unless otherwise indicated, all per share results are reported based on the basic weighted average shares of Common Stock and Class A Units of the Company's operating partnership ("Class A Units") outstanding. See Definitions of Non-GAAP Measures.

Financial HighlightsOur operating results are presented below.

"Our first quarter reflects continued and consistently solid operating performance across all of our operating platforms, including multifamily same store NOI growth of 4.3% quarter over quarter in a same store pool that represents over 80% of our multifamily units," stated Joel Murphy, Preferred Apartment Communities' President and Chief Executive Officer. "As we moved into the second quarter, the events related to and resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted our economy and our markets and we have taken several measures to preserve liquidity. Among them, the Board making the difficult but prudent decision to reduce our common dividend given the uncertainty of the current circumstances and environment.  I am extremely proud of our leadership team and operating teams across all of our platforms that have worked collaboratively and effectively alongside our residents and our tenants in a challenging environment for all concerned. We believe our diversified portfolio, with high quality assets in strong Sunbelt markets, positions us well to create shareholder value over the long term."

The following chart details cash collections of rental revenues across all our verticals for the month April.

Our net loss per share was $(4.44) and $(0.66) for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Funds From Operations, or FFO, for the three months ended March 31, 2020 was $(3.42) per weighted average share and unit outstanding and includes costs associated with the acquisition of Preferred Apartment Advisors, LLC (our "Former Manager") of approximately $178.8 million. Excluding these costs, our FFO per share was $0.31 for the three months ended March 31, 2020. Core FFO was $0.38 for the three months ended March 31, 2020, as compared to $0.41 for the three months ended March 31, 2019.

For the first quarter 2020, our declared dividends to preferred and Common Stockholders and distributions to Unitholders exceeded our NAREIT-defined FFO result for the period, which was negative. Our Core FFO payout ratio to Common Stockholders and Unitholders was approximately 69.4% and our Core FFO payout ratio (before the deduction of preferred dividends) to our preferred stockholders was approximately 64.4%^(B)

Our AFFO payout ratio to Common Stockholders and Unitholders was approximately 55.9% for the first quarter 2020. Our AFFO payout ratio (before the deduction of preferred dividends) to our preferred stockholders was approximately 59.3% for the first quarter 2020. ^(B) We have approximately $20.2 million of accrued but not yet received interest revenue on our real estate loan investment portfolio.

For the quarter ended March 31, 2020, our same-store multifamily rental and other property revenues increased approximately 3.4% and our operating expenses increased 2.1%, resulting in an increase in same-store net operating income of approximately 4.3% as compared to the quarter ended March 31, 2019.^(C) For the first quarter 2020, our average same-store multifamily communities' physical occupancy was 95.5%. Our 2020 same-store multifamily portfolio represents approximately 81.7% of our aggregate multifamily units.

On January 1, 2020, Joel T. Murphy became Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Mr. Murphy will continue as a member of the board, where he has served since May 2019 and as Chairman of the Company's Investment Committee, a role he has had since June 2018. Mr. Murphy was the CEO of our New Market Properties subsidiary for the last five years until his appointment as our CEO. Mr. Murphy succeeded Daniel M. DuPree as CEO. Mr. DuPree will remain with us as Executive Chairman of the Board.

On January 31, 2020, we internalized the functions performed by Preferred Apartment Advisors, LLC (the "Manager") and NMP Advisors, LLC (the "Sub-Manager") by acquiring the entities that own the Manager and the Sub-Manager (such transactions, collectively, the "Internalization") for an aggregate purchase price of $154.0 million, plus up to $25.0 million of additional consideration to be paid within 36 months. Additionally, up to $15.0 million of the $154.0 million purchase price was to be held back and is payable to the sellers less certain losses following final resolution of certain specified matters. Pursuant to the Stock Purchase Agreement entered into on January 31, 2020 the sellers sold all of the outstanding shares of NELL Partners, Inc. ("NELL") and NMA Holdings, Inc., parent companies of the Manager and Sub-Manager, respectively, to us, in exchange for an aggregate of approximately $111.1 million in cash paid at the closing which reflects the satisfaction of certain indebtedness of NELL, the estimated net working capital adjustment, and a hold back of $15.0 million for certain specified matters.

During the first quarter 2020, the borrowers of the Dawson Marketplace, Falls at Forsyth, and (in conjunction with our acquisition of the underlying property) Altis Wiregrass real estate loans repaid all amounts due under the loans, including aggregate principal amounts of approximately $53.9 million and interest accrued in periods prior to the first quarter 2020 of approximately $8.9 million, the latter of which was additive to our first quarter 2020 AFFO result. The three mezzanine loan investments that matured this quarter yielded a weighted average 17% internal rate of return.

As of March 31, 2020, the average age of our multifamily communities was approximately 5.8 years, which is the youngest in the public multifamily REIT industry.

As of March 31, 2020, approximately 94.5% of our permanent property-level mortgage debt has fixed interest rates and approximately 3.7% has variable interest rates which are capped. We believe we are well protected against potential increases in market interest rates.

As of March 31, 2020, our total assets were approximately $4.8 billion. Our total assets at March 31, 2019, also approximately $4.8 billion, included approximately $545 million of VIE mortgage pool assets attributable to other mortgage pool participants that were consolidated due to our investments in the Freddie Mac K Program. During the fourth quarter 2019, we sold our K Program investments, realizing an internal rate of return of approximately 18%. Excluding the consolidated VIE mortgage pool assets from the March 31, 2019 total, our total assets grew approximately $570.4 million, or 13.4%.

At March 31, 2020, our leverage, as measured by the ratio of our debt to the undepreciated book value of our total assets, was approximately 53.7%.

On March 20, 2020, we delivered a written termination notice to the prospective purchaser of six of our student housing properties for their failure to consummate the purchase. Accordingly, we received an additional $2.75 million of forfeited earnest money as liquidated damages.