Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE:HR) & Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) Head-To-Head Contrast

Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE:HR) and Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, risk and earnings.

Risk & Volatility

Healthcare Realty Trust has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Highwoods Properties has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Healthcare Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.9%. Highwoods Properties pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.0%. Healthcare Realty Trust pays out -93.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Highwoods Properties pays out 163.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Healthcare Realty Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

96.3% of Highwoods Properties shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Healthcare Realty Trust shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of Highwoods Properties shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Healthcare Realty Trust and Highwoods Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Healthcare Realty Trust	-42.79%	-8.50%	-4.52%
Highwoods Properties	18.30%	6.33%	2.53%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Healthcare Realty Trust and Highwoods Properties, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Healthcare Realty Trust	1	5	2	0	2.13
Highwoods Properties	1	5	1	0	2.00

Healthcare Realty Trust currently has a consensus price target of $17.13, indicating a potential downside of 4.33%. Highwoods Properties has a consensus price target of $27.86, indicating a potential downside of 16.29%. Given Healthcare Realty Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Healthcare Realty Trust is more favorable than Highwoods Properties.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Healthcare Realty Trust and Highwoods Properties”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Healthcare Realty Trust	$1.32 billion	5.15	-$278.26 million	($1.33)	-13.46
Highwoods Properties	$829.97 million	4.25	$148.71 million	$1.22	27.28

Highwoods Properties has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Healthcare Realty Trust. Healthcare Realty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Highwoods Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Highwoods Properties beats Healthcare Realty Trust on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Healthcare Realty Trust

Healthcare Realty (NYSE: HR) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and operates medical outpatient buildings primarily located around market-leading hospital campuses. The Company selectively grows its portfolio through property acquisition and development. As the first and largest REIT to specialize in medical outpatient buildings, Healthcare Realty's portfolio includes more than 700 properties totaling over 40 million square feet concentrated in 15 growth markets.

About Highwoods Properties

Highwoods Properties, Inc., headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded (NYSE:HIW), fully-integrated office real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa. Highwoods is in the work-placemaking business. We believe that by creating environments and experiences where the best and brightest can achieve together what they cannot apart, we can deliver greater value to our customers, their teammates and, in turn, our stakeholders.