Head-To-Head Analysis: Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG) vs. AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC)

Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG) and AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

84.7% of Simon Property Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 38.9% of AGNC Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.5% of Simon Property Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of AGNC Investment shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Simon Property Group and AGNC Investment’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Simon Property Group	39.63%	63.01%	6.53%
AGNC Investment	1.96%	29.59%	3.03%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Simon Property Group and AGNC Investment, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Simon Property Group	0	3	6	0	2.67
AGNC Investment	0	1	5	0	2.83

Simon Property Group presently has a consensus target price of $128.36, suggesting a potential upside of 11.99%. AGNC Investment has a consensus target price of $10.19, suggesting a potential upside of 5.13%. Given Simon Property Group’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Simon Property Group is more favorable than AGNC Investment.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Simon Property Group and AGNC Investment’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Simon Property Group	$5.29 billion	7.09	$2.14 billion	$6.58	17.42
AGNC Investment	$108.00 million	54.38	-$1.19 billion	($0.26)	-37.27

Simon Property Group has higher revenue and earnings than AGNC Investment. AGNC Investment is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Simon Property Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Simon Property Group has a beta of 1.54, suggesting that its share price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AGNC Investment has a beta of 1.23, suggesting that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Simon Property Group pays an annual dividend of $7.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.6%. AGNC Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.9%. Simon Property Group pays out 115.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AGNC Investment pays out -553.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Simon Property Group has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. AGNC Investment is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Simon Property Group beats AGNC Investment on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Simon Property Group

Simon is a real estate investment trust engaged in the ownership of premier shopping, dining, entertainment and mixed-use destinations and an S&P 100 company (Simon Property Group, NYSE: SPG). Our properties across North America, Europe and Asia provide community gathering places for millions of people every day and generate billions in annual sales.

About AGNC Investment

AGNC Investment Corp., formerly American Capital Agency Corp., is a real estate investment trust. The Company invests in agency residential mortgage-backed securities on a leveraged basis. Its investments consist of residential mortgage pass-through securities and collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by a government-sponsored enterprise, such as the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), or by the United States Government agency, such as the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) (collectively, GSEs). Its agency securities include agency residential mortgage-backed securities (Agency RMBS) and to-be-announced forward contracts (TBAs). Its Non-Agency Securities include credit risk transfer securities (CRT), non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities (Non-Agency RMBS) and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS).