Modiv Industrial (NYSE:MDV) versus Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) Head to Head Comparison

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) and Modiv Industrial (NYSE:MDV) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Essex Property Trust and Modiv Industrial, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Essex Property Trust	1	10	7	0	2.33
Modiv Industrial	0	0	0	1	4.00

Essex Property Trust currently has a consensus price target of $308.2647, suggesting a potential upside of 19.48%. Modiv Industrial has a consensus price target of $18.00, suggesting a potential upside of 24.14%. Given Modiv Industrial’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Modiv Industrial is more favorable than Essex Property Trust.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Essex Property Trust	43.51%	13.98%	6.16%
Modiv Industrial	6.72%	1.44%	0.61%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 8.2% of Modiv Industrial shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of Modiv Industrial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Essex Property Trust pays an annual dividend of $10.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Modiv Industrial pays an annual dividend of $1.17 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.1%. Essex Property Trust pays out 82.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Modiv Industrial pays out -1,300.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Essex Property Trust has increased its dividend for 31 consecutive years and Modiv Industrial has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Modiv Industrial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Volatility and Risk

Essex Property Trust has a beta of 0.8, indicating that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Modiv Industrial has a beta of -0.31, indicating that its share price is 131% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Essex Property Trust and Modiv Industrial”s gross 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	9.36	$741.52 million	$12.44	20.74
Modiv Industrial	$46.76 million	3.14	$6.02 million	($0.09)	-161.11

Essex Property Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Modiv Industrial. Modiv Industrial 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 Modiv Industrial on 13 of the 18 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 Modiv Industrial

Modiv Industrial, Inc. is an internally managed REIT that is focused on single-tenant net-lease industrial manufacturing real estate. The Company actively acquires critical industrial manufacturing properties with long-term leases to tenants that fuel the national economy and strengthen the nation's supply chains.