Financial Survey: Rural Funds Group (OTC:RFNDF) and Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND)

Rural Funds Group (OTC:RFNDF) and Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND) are both real estate companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, dividends and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Rural Funds Group and Gladstone Land’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rural Funds Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
Gladstone Land	15.27%	1.89%	0.97%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

45.4% of Gladstone Land shares are held by institutional investors. 7.2% of Gladstone Land shares are held by company 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Rural Funds Group and Gladstone Land, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rural Funds Group	0	0	0	0	N/A
Gladstone Land	0	0	3	0	3.00

Gladstone Land has a consensus target price of $22.67, suggesting a potential upside of 53.88%. Given Gladstone Land’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Gladstone Land is more favorable than Rural Funds Group.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Rural Funds Group and Gladstone Land’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Rural Funds Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Gladstone Land	$89.24 million	5.92	$4.71 million	($0.29)	-50.79

Gladstone Land has higher revenue and earnings than Rural Funds Group.

Summary

Gladstone Land beats Rural Funds Group on 8 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Rural Funds Group

Rural Funds Group is an agricultural Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) listed on the ASX under the code RFF. RFF owns a diversified portfolio of Australian agricultural assets which are leased predominantly to corporate agricultural operators. RFF targets distribution growth of 4% per annum by owning and improving farms that are leased to good counterparties. RFF is a stapled security, incorporating Rural Funds Trust (ARSN 112 951 578) and RF Active (ARSN 168 740 805).

About Gladstone Land

Founded in 1997, Gladstone Land is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires and owns farmland and farm-related properties located in major agricultural markets in the U.S. and leases its properties to unrelated third-party farmers. The Company, which reports the aggregate fair value of its farmland holdings on a quarterly basis, currently owns 169 farms, comprised of approximately 116,000 acres in 15 different states and over 45,000 acre-feet of banked water in California, valued at a total of approximately $1.6 billion. Gladstone Land's farms are predominantly located in regions where its tenants are able to grow fresh produce annual row crops, such as berries and vegetables, which are generally planted and harvested annually. The Company also owns farms growing permanent crops, such as almonds, apples, cherries, figs, lemons, olives, pistachios, and other orchards, as well as blueberry groves and vineyards, which are generally planted every 20-plus years and harvested annually. Approximately 40% of the Company's fresh produce acreage is either organic or in transition to become organic, and over 10% of its permanent crop acreage falls into this category. The Company may also acquire property related to farming, such as cooling facilities, processing buildings, packaging facilities, and distribution centers. Gladstone Land pays monthly distributions to its stockholders and has paid 126 consecutive monthly cash distributions on its common stock since its initial public offering in January 2013. The Company has increased its common distributions 31 times over the prior 34 quarters, and the current per-share distribution on its common stock is $0.0462 per month, or $0.5544 per year.