National Storage Affiliates Trust (NYSE:NSA) and CTO Realty Growth (NYSE:CTO) Critical Comparison

CTO Realty Growth (NYSE:CTO) and National Storage Affiliates Trust (NYSE:NSA) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for CTO Realty Growth and National Storage Affiliates Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CTO Realty Growth	0	1	4	0	2.80
National Storage Affiliates Trust	3	7	2	0	1.92

CTO Realty Growth currently has a consensus price target of $21.00, suggesting a potential upside of 22.45%. National Storage Affiliates Trust has a consensus price target of $40.60, suggesting a potential upside of 20.40%. Given CTO Realty Growth’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe CTO Realty Growth is more favorable than National Storage Affiliates Trust.

Profitability

This table compares CTO Realty Growth and National Storage Affiliates Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CTO Realty Growth	-2.55%	-0.52%	-0.25%
National Storage Affiliates Trust	13.34%	5.28%	1.83%

Dividends

CTO Realty Growth pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.9%. National Storage Affiliates Trust pays an annual dividend of $2.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.6%. CTO Realty Growth pays out -490.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. National Storage Affiliates Trust pays out 215.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. National Storage Affiliates Trust has increased its dividend for 9 consecutive years. CTO Realty Growth is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares CTO Realty Growth and National Storage Affiliates Trust’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CTO Realty Growth	$96.41 million	4.04	$3.16 million	($0.31)	-55.32
National Storage Affiliates Trust	$801.57 million	3.75	$103.74 million	$1.04	32.42

National Storage Affiliates Trust has higher revenue and earnings than CTO Realty Growth. CTO Realty Growth is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than National Storage Affiliates Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

CTO Realty Growth has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, National Storage Affiliates Trust has a beta of 0.71, meaning that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

62.0% of CTO Realty Growth shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.6% of National Storage Affiliates Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.0% of CTO Realty Growth shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.0% of National Storage Affiliates Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

National Storage Affiliates Trust beats CTO Realty Growth on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CTO Realty Growth

CTO Realty Growth, Inc. is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns and operates a portfolio of high-quality, retail-based properties located primarily in higher growth markets in the United States. CTO also externally manages and owns a meaningful interest in Alpine Income Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE: PINE), a publicly traded net lease REIT.

About National Storage Affiliates Trust

National Storage Affiliates Trust is a real estate investment trust headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado, focused on the ownership, operation and acquisition of self storage properties predominantly located within the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas throughout the United States. As of June 30, 2023, the Company held ownership interests in and operated 1,117 self storage properties located in 42 states and Puerto Rico with approximately 72.8 million rentable square feet. NSA is one of the largest owners and operators of self storage properties among public and private companies in the United States.