Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE:FRT) versus Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE:HR) Head-To-Head Comparison

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Healthcare Realty Trust and Federal Realty Investment Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Healthcare Realty Trust	1	4	0	0	1.80
Federal Realty Investment Trust	0	4	7	0	2.64

Healthcare Realty Trust presently has a consensus target price of $17.00, suggesting a potential upside of 7.77%. Federal Realty Investment Trust has a consensus target price of $116.55, suggesting a potential upside of 24.57%. Given Federal Realty Investment Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Federal Realty Investment Trust is more favorable than Healthcare Realty Trust.

Dividends

Healthcare Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.9%. Federal Realty Investment Trust pays an annual dividend of $4.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Healthcare Realty Trust pays out -69.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Federal Realty Investment Trust pays out 128.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Federal Realty Investment Trust has raised its dividend for 58 consecutive years. Healthcare Realty Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Healthcare Realty Trust and Federal Realty Investment Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Healthcare Realty Trust	-51.60%	-11.20%	-5.69%
Federal Realty Investment Trust	24.38%	9.89%	3.48%

Risk and Volatility

Healthcare Realty Trust has a beta of 0.85, suggesting that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Federal Realty Investment Trust has a beta of 1.08, suggesting that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.9% of Federal Realty Investment Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Healthcare Realty Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Federal Realty Investment Trust shares are owned 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.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Healthcare Realty Trust and Federal Realty Investment Trust”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Healthcare Realty Trust	$1.25 billion	4.43	-$278.26 million	($1.78)	-8.86
Federal Realty Investment Trust	$1.20 billion	6.67	$295.21 million	$3.43	27.28

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

Summary

Federal Realty Investment Trust beats Healthcare Realty Trust on 14 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Healthcare Realty Trust

Healthcare Realty Trust, Inc. provides real estate investment services. It owns, leases, manages, acquires, finances, develops, and redevelops income-producing real estate properties associated primarily with the delivery of outpatient healthcare services throughout the United States of America. The company was founded by David R. Emery in 1992 and is headquartered in Nashville, TN.

About Federal Realty Investment Trust

Federal Realty Investment Trust is an equity real estate investment trust, which engages in the provision of ownership, management, and redevelopment of retail and mixed-use properties located primarily in communities where demand exceeds supply in strategically selected metropolitan markets. The company was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in North Bethesda, MD.