Comparing SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust (OTCMKTS:CWYUF) & Acadia Realty Trust (NYSE:AKR)

SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust (OTCMKTS:CWYUF) and Acadia Realty Trust (NYSE:AKR) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, dividends and earnings.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.7% of Acadia Realty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 20.9% of SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of Acadia Realty Trust shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Acadia Realty Trust has a beta of 1.41, suggesting that its share price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust and Acadia Realty Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust	0	0	0	2	4.00
Acadia Realty Trust	0	0	2	0	3.00

Acadia Realty Trust has a consensus price target of $25.00, suggesting a potential upside of 33.21%. Given Acadia Realty Trust’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Acadia Realty Trust is more favorable than SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust.

Dividends

SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.4%. Acadia Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust pays out 111.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Acadia Realty Trust pays out 500.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Acadia Realty Trust has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust and Acadia Realty Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust	$670.29 million	4.88	$172.78 million	$1.22	15.04
Acadia Realty Trust	$359.69 million	6.84	$21.65 million	$0.16	117.30

SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Acadia Realty Trust. SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Acadia Realty Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust and Acadia Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust	35.62%	4.74%	2.50%
Acadia Realty Trust	5.31%	0.79%	0.45%

Summary

SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust beats Acadia Realty Trust on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust

SmartCentres is one of Canada’s largest fully integrated REITs, with a best-in-class and growing mixed-use portfolio featuring 191 strategically located properties in communities across the country. SmartCentres has approximately $12.0 billion in assets and owns 35.0 million square feet of income producing value-oriented retail and first-class office properties with 98.5% in place and committed occupancy, on 3,500 acres of owned land across Canada.

About Acadia Realty Trust

Acadia Realty Trust is an equity real estate investment trust focused on delivering long-term, profitable growth via its dual Core Portfolio and Fund operating platforms and its disciplined, location-driven investment strategy. Acadia Realty Trust is accomplishing this goal by building a best-in-class core real estate portfolio with meaningful concentrations of assets in the nation's most dynamic corridors; making profitable opportunistic and value-add investments through its series of discretionary, institutional funds; and maintaining a strong balance sheet.