Analyzing Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) & JBG SMITH Properties (NYSE:JBGS)

Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) and JBG SMITH Properties (NYSE:JBGS) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and risk.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Mid-America Apartment Communities and JBG SMITH Properties’ revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mid-America Apartment Communities	$2.15 billion	6.85	$552.81 million	$4.71	26.77
JBG SMITH Properties	$604.20 million	2.25	-$79.98 million	($0.84)	-17.67

Mid-America Apartment Communities has higher revenue and earnings than JBG SMITH Properties. JBG SMITH Properties is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Mid-America Apartment Communities, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Mid-America Apartment Communities has a beta of 0.8, suggesting that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, JBG SMITH Properties has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Mid-America Apartment Communities pays an annual dividend of $5.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. JBG SMITH Properties pays an annual dividend of $0.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Mid-America Apartment Communities pays out 124.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. JBG SMITH Properties pays out -83.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Mid-America Apartment Communities has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years. JBG SMITH Properties is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.6% of Mid-America Apartment Communities shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.5% of JBG SMITH Properties shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.3% of Mid-America Apartment Communities shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of JBG SMITH Properties shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Mid-America Apartment Communities and JBG SMITH Properties, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mid-America Apartment Communities	2	10	3	0	2.07
JBG SMITH Properties	1	0	0	0	1.00

Mid-America Apartment Communities presently has a consensus price target of $143.18, suggesting a potential upside of 13.56%. JBG SMITH Properties has a consensus price target of $14.50, suggesting a potential downside of 2.29%. Given Mid-America Apartment Communities’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Mid-America Apartment Communities is more favorable than JBG SMITH Properties.

Profitability

This table compares Mid-America Apartment Communities and JBG SMITH Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mid-America Apartment Communities	25.73%	8.74%	4.85%
JBG SMITH Properties	-13.24%	-3.20%	-1.40%

Summary

Mid-America Apartment Communities beats JBG SMITH Properties on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mid-America Apartment Communities

MAA, an S&P 500 company, is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on delivering full-cycle and superior investment performance for shareholders through the ownership, management, acquisition, development and redevelopment of quality apartment communities primarily in the Southeast, Southwest and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. As of December 31, 2023, MAA had ownership interest in 102,662 apartment units, including communities currently in development, across 16 states and the District of Columbia.

About JBG SMITH Properties

JBG SMITH owns, operates, invests in, and develops mixed-use properties in high growth and high barrier-to-entry submarkets in and around Washington, DC, most notably National Landing. Through an intense focus on placemaking, JBG SMITH cultivates vibrant, amenity-rich, walkable neighborhoods throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Approximately 75.0% of JBG SMITH's holdings are in the National Landing submarket in Northern Virginia, which is anchored by four key demand drivers: Amazon's new headquarters; Virginia Tech's under-construction $1 billion Innovation Campus; the submarket's proximity to the Pentagon; and JBG SMITH's deployment of 5G digital infrastructure. JBG SMITH's dynamic portfolio currently comprises 14.2 million square feet of high-growth office, multifamily, and retail assets at share, 99% of which are Metro-served. It also maintains a development pipeline encompassing 8.8 million square feet of mixed-use, primarily multifamily, development opportunities. JBG SMITH is committed to the operation and development of green, smart, and healthy buildings and plans to maintain carbon neutral operations annually.