Analyzing Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust (OTCMKTS:BOWFF) and Armada Hoffler Properties (NYSE:AHH)

Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust (OTCMKTS:BOWFF) and Armada Hoffler Properties (NYSE:AHH) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends, valuation, risk and institutional ownership.

Volatility and Risk

Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust has a beta of 1.17, suggesting that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Armada Hoffler Properties has a beta of 1.13, suggesting that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust and Armada Hoffler Properties, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust	0	1	0	0	2.00
Armada Hoffler Properties	1	1	2	0	2.25

Armada Hoffler Properties has a consensus target price of $8.38, suggesting a potential upside of 16.56%. Given Armada Hoffler Properties’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Armada Hoffler Properties is more favorable than Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust.

Dividends

Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.17 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Armada Hoffler Properties pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.8%. Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust pays out 34.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Armada Hoffler Properties pays out 466.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Profitability

This table compares Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust and Armada Hoffler Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust	52.90%	6.79%	3.81%
Armada Hoffler Properties	4.39%	3.40%	0.95%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

66.4% of Armada Hoffler Properties shares are owned by institutional investors. 19.0% of Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.2% of Armada Hoffler Properties shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust and Armada Hoffler Properties”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust	$440.33 million	5.71	$429.28 million	$3.43	14.93
Armada Hoffler Properties	$708.47 million	1.05	$35.65 million	$0.12	59.88

Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Armada Hoffler Properties. Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Armada Hoffler Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust beats Armada Hoffler Properties on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust

Boardwalk REIT strives to be Canada’s friendliest community provider and is a leading owner/operator of multi-family rental communities. Providing homes in more than 200 communities, with over 34,000 residential suites totaling over 29 million net rentable square feet, Boardwalk has a proven long-term track record of building better communities, where love always lives. Our three-tiered and distinct brands: Boardwalk Living, Boardwalk Communities, and Boardwalk Lifestyle, cater to a large diverse demographic and has evolved to capture the life cycle of all Resident Members. Boardwalk’s disciplined approach to capital allocation, acquisition, development, purposeful re-positioning, and management of apartment communities allows the Trust to provide its brand of community across Canada creating exceptional Resident Member experiences. Differentiated by its peak performance culture, Boardwalk is committed to delivering exceptional service, product quality and experience to our Resident Members who reward us with high retention and market leading operating results, which in turn, lead to higher free cash flow and investment returns, stable monthly distributions, and value creation for all our stakeholders. Boardwalk REIT’s Trust Units are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol BEI.UN.

About Armada Hoffler Properties

Armada Hoffler Properties, Inc. (the “Company”) is a vertically integrated, self-managed real estate investment trust (“REIT”) with over four decades of experience developing, building, acquiring, and managing high-quality retail, office, and multifamily properties located primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. In addition to the ownership of the Company’s operating property portfolio, the Company develops and builds properties for its own account and through joint ventures between the Company and unaffiliated partners and also invests in development projects through real estate financing arrangements. The Company also provides general construction and development services to third-party clients. The Company’s construction and development experience includes mid- and high-rise office buildings, retail strip malls, retail power centers, multifamily apartment communities, hotels and conference centers, single- and multi-tenant industrial, distribution, and manufacturing facilities, educational, medical, and special purpose facilities, government projects, parking garages, and mixed-use town centers. The Company is the sole general partner of Armada Hoffler, L.P. (the “Operating Partnership”) and, as of March 31, 2024, owned 75.5% of the economic interest in the Operating Partnership, of which 0.1% is held as general partnership units. The operations of the Company are conducted primarily through the Operating Partnership and the wholly owned subsidiaries thereof.