Chatham Lodging Trust (NYSE:CLDT) and Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Head-To-Head Survey

Chatham Lodging Trust (NYSE:CLDT) and Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Chatham Lodging Trust and Crown Castle”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Chatham Lodging Trust	$317.21 million	1.00	$4.17 million	$0.03	215.33
Crown Castle	$6.57 billion	6.13	-$3.90 billion	($10.63)	-8.69

Chatham Lodging Trust has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Crown Castle. Crown Castle is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Chatham Lodging Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Chatham Lodging Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.6%. Crown Castle pays an annual dividend of $4.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Chatham Lodging Trust pays out 1,200.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Crown Castle pays out -40.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Chatham Lodging Trust has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Chatham Lodging Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Volatility & Risk

Chatham Lodging Trust has a beta of 1.44, meaning that its share price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Crown Castle has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Chatham Lodging Trust and Crown Castle, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Chatham Lodging Trust	0	1	2	0	2.67
Crown Castle	1	6	10	3	2.75

Chatham Lodging Trust currently has a consensus price target of $10.75, indicating a potential upside of 66.41%. Crown Castle has a consensus price target of $113.12, indicating a potential upside of 22.43%. Given Chatham Lodging Trust’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Chatham Lodging Trust is more favorable than Crown Castle.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

88.4% of Chatham Lodging Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.8% of Crown Castle shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.5% of Chatham Lodging Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Crown Castle shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Chatham Lodging Trust and Crown Castle’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Chatham Lodging Trust	3.04%	1.19%	0.76%
Crown Castle	-95.37%	-619.62%	-12.35%

Summary

Chatham Lodging Trust beats Crown Castle on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Chatham Lodging Trust

Chatham Lodging Trust is a self-advised, publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) focused primarily on investing in upscale, extended-stay hotels and premium-branded, select-service hotels. The company owns 39 hotels totaling 5,915 rooms/suites in 16 states and the District of Columbia.

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 90,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions across every major U.S. market. This nationwide portfolio of communications infrastructure connects cities and communities to essential data, technology and wireless service – bringing information, ideas and innovations to the people and businesses that need them.