U-Store-It Trust (NYSE: YSI) CEO Dean Jernigan said the real estate investment trust, which owns self-storage facilities, might benefit from the housing market turmoil. Jernigan made the statements during a morning conference call.

“Along with marriage and divorce, I’m ready to add home foreclosures as an additional life-changing event that brings us business,” Jernigan said.

The chief executive said he noticed growth in rental rates in markets with high foreclosure rates, such as Detroit and Las Vegas.

I’m not ready to say there’s a positive correlation yet, because I don’t think we have enough time under observation and I think we will do a study at the appropriate time to look back and see if we can make a positive correlation,” Jernigan said. “I think it’s quite possible.”

For 2008, the firm expects a loss in the range of $0.12 to $0.10 per share. The company expects funds from operations, the most common measure of real estate investment trust operating performance, of $0.31 per share.

“We are affirming the full-year 2008 guidance and the underlying assumptions we introduced in the December release,” CFO Christopher Marr said.

U-Store-It’s January and February rental activity has met expectations, Marr said.

After Thursday’s closing, U-Store-It reported a fourth-quarter loss of $5.9 million, or $0.10 per share, compared with a loss of $5.7 million, or $0.10 per share, a year earlier. Analysts expected a loss of $0.10 per share.

Merriman Curham Ford initiated Rackable Systems Inc., (Nasdaq: RACK) to a buy Thursday.

After gross margin declines since December 2006, analyst David Duley of Merriman Curham Ford forecasts a turnaround for the provider of x86 server and data storage solutions for modern data centers. 

In a research note Duley writes, “Gross margins have bottomed out and should improve over the next several quarters.”

Gross margins were beaten down as a result of larger competitors offering ASP reductions to key customer accounts for Rackable. Duley said he expects strategic initiatives to materialize and purports margins will be driven by new products and an expanded channel. 

“As overall profitability improves, we believe the stock has a good chance of a nice move off the bottom,” wrote Duley. 

The stock currently trades at 0.5 times EV/FY 2006 sales. Second quarter revenues are forecasted to be between $75 and $85 million, or up 4%-18% sequentially. General and administrative expenses are expected to decrease by 8%-10% from pro-forma levels purported in the first quarter; however, research and development costs are expected to increase. Duley expects earnings for fiscal year 2007 to clock in at a loss of $0.07, but forecasts a profit of $0.38 per share for fiscal year 2008.