Head to Head Review: American Tower (NYSE:AMT) vs. One Liberty Properties (NYSE:OLP)

One Liberty Properties (NYSE:OLP) and American Tower (NYSE:AMT) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares One Liberty Properties and American Tower’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
One Liberty Properties	38.96%	11.35%	4.58%
American Tower	10.05%	22.01%	3.55%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

36.2% of One Liberty Properties shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.7% of American Tower shares are held by institutional investors. 25.4% of One Liberty Properties shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of American Tower shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

One Liberty Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.3%. American Tower pays an annual dividend of $6.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. One Liberty Properties pays out 111.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. American Tower pays out 273.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. One Liberty Properties is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares One Liberty Properties and American Tower”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
One Liberty Properties	$90.65 million	6.70	$29.61 million	$1.62	17.52
American Tower	$11.14 billion	8.34	$1.48 billion	$2.37	83.90

American Tower has higher revenue and earnings than One Liberty Properties. One Liberty Properties is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Tower, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for One Liberty Properties and American Tower, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
One Liberty Properties	0	0	1	0	3.00
American Tower	0	3	9	1	2.85

One Liberty Properties currently has a consensus target price of $28.00, indicating a potential downside of 1.37%. American Tower has a consensus target price of $235.54, indicating a potential upside of 18.46%. Given American Tower’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe American Tower is more favorable than One Liberty Properties.

Volatility and Risk

One Liberty Properties has a beta of 1.36, meaning that its stock price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Tower has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

American Tower beats One Liberty Properties on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About One Liberty Properties

One Liberty is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust incorporated in Maryland in 1982. The Company acquires, owns and manages a geographically diversified portfolio consisting primarily of industrial and retail properties. Many of these properties are subject to long-term net leases under which the tenant is typically responsible for the property’s real estate taxes, insurance and ordinary maintenance and repairs.

About American Tower

American Tower, one of the largest global REITs, is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a portfolio of over 224,000 communications sites and a highly interconnected footprint of U.S. data center facilities.