Head to Head Survey: Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) & Mackenzie Realty Capital (NASDAQ:MKZR)

Mackenzie Realty Capital (NASDAQ:MKZR) and Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.4% of Sunstone Hotel Investors shares are held by institutional investors. 6.3% of Mackenzie Realty Capital shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Sunstone Hotel Investors shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Mackenzie Realty Capital and Sunstone Hotel Investors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mackenzie Realty Capital	1	0	0	0	1.00
Sunstone Hotel Investors	2	4	2	0	2.00

Sunstone Hotel Investors has a consensus price target of $8.93, indicating a potential downside of 4.56%. Given Sunstone Hotel Investors’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Sunstone Hotel Investors is more favorable than Mackenzie Realty Capital.

Profitability

This table compares Mackenzie Realty Capital and Sunstone Hotel Investors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mackenzie Realty Capital	N/A	-15.16%	-6.24%
Sunstone Hotel Investors	2.15%	1.12%	0.65%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Mackenzie Realty Capital and Sunstone Hotel Investors”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mackenzie Realty Capital	$22.06 million	0.33	-$25.92 million	($10.80)	-0.37
Sunstone Hotel Investors	$937.93 million	1.89	$43.26 million	N/A	N/A

Sunstone Hotel Investors has higher revenue and earnings than Mackenzie Realty Capital.

Summary

Sunstone Hotel Investors beats Mackenzie Realty Capital on 11 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mackenzie Realty Capital

MacKenzie Realty Capital Inc. is a REIT which focused on investing in multifamily housing and office real estate properties located principally in the United States. MacKenzie Realty Capital Inc. is based in ORINDA, Calif.

About Sunstone Hotel Investors

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. is a lodging real estate investment trust ("REIT") that as of the date of this release owns 14 hotels comprised of 6,675 rooms, the majority of which are operated under nationally recognized brands. Sunstone's strategy is to create long-term stakeholder value through the acquisition, active ownership, and disposition of well-located hotel and resort real estate.