Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) vs. Safehold (NYSE:SAFE) Head-To-Head Contrast

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) and Safehold (NYSE:SAFE) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends and valuation.

Dividends

Essex Property Trust pays an annual dividend of $10.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Safehold pays an annual dividend of $0.71 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Essex Property Trust pays out 98.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Safehold pays out 48.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Essex Property Trust has increased its dividend for 31 consecutive years and Safehold has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Safehold is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.4% of Safehold shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.5% of Safehold shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Essex Property Trust and Safehold’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Essex Property Trust	37.08%	11.81%	5.24%
Safehold	28.20%	4.76%	1.64%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Essex Property Trust and Safehold, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Essex Property Trust	1	11	7	0	2.32
Safehold	0	4	4	0	2.50

Essex Property Trust currently has a consensus price target of $310.83, suggesting a potential upside of 9.19%. Safehold has a consensus price target of $23.13, suggesting a potential upside of 50.43%. Given Safehold’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Safehold is more favorable than Essex Property Trust.

Risk and Volatility

Essex Property Trust has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Safehold has a beta of 1.8, suggesting that its share price is 80% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Essex Property Trust and Safehold”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Essex Property Trust	$1.77 billion	10.33	$741.52 million	$10.45	27.24
Safehold	$365.68 million	3.02	$105.76 million	$1.46	10.53

Essex Property Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Safehold. Safehold is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Essex Property Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Essex Property Trust beats Safehold on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Essex Property Trust

Essex Property Trust, Inc., an S&P 500 company, is a fully integrated real estate investment trust (REIT) that acquires, develops, redevelops, and manages multifamily residential properties in selected West Coast markets. Essex currently has ownership interests in 252 apartment communities comprising approximately 62,000 apartment homes with an additional property in active development.

About Safehold

Safehold Inc. (NYSE: SAFE) is revolutionizing real estate ownership by providing a new and better way for owners to unlock the value of the land beneath their buildings. Having created the modern ground lease industry in 2017, Safehold continues to help owners of high quality multifamily, office, industrial, hospitality, student housing, life science and mixed-use properties generate higher returns with less risk. The Company, which is taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT), seeks to deliver safe, growing income and long-term capital appreciation to its shareholders.