Acadia Realty Trust (NYSE:AKR) and Brixmor Property Group (NYSE:BRX) Critical Review

Acadia Realty Trust (NYSE:AKR) and Brixmor Property Group (NYSE:BRX) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Acadia Realty Trust and Brixmor Property Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Acadia Realty Trust	1	2	2	0	2.20
Brixmor Property Group	0	2	9	0	2.82

Acadia Realty Trust presently has a consensus target price of $22.00, suggesting a potential upside of 10.81%. Brixmor Property Group has a consensus target price of $30.20, suggesting a potential upside of 17.81%. Given Brixmor Property Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Brixmor Property Group is more favorable than Acadia Realty Trust.

Profitability

This table compares Acadia Realty Trust and Brixmor Property Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Acadia Realty Trust	4.21%	0.63%	0.36%
Brixmor Property Group	24.70%	11.22%	3.78%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Acadia Realty Trust and Brixmor Property Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Acadia Realty Trust	$359.69 million	7.23	$21.65 million	$0.12	165.44
Brixmor Property Group	$1.29 billion	6.11	$339.27 million	$1.09	23.52

Brixmor Property Group has higher revenue and earnings than Acadia Realty Trust. Brixmor Property Group 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.

Dividends

Acadia Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Brixmor Property Group pays an annual dividend of $1.15 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Acadia Realty Trust pays out 666.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Brixmor Property Group pays out 105.5% 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 has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Brixmor Property Group has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Brixmor Property Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Volatility and Risk

Acadia Realty Trust has a beta of 1.12, indicating that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brixmor Property Group has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

97.7% of Acadia Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.4% of Brixmor Property Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.8% of Acadia Realty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Brixmor Property Group 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.

Summary

Brixmor Property Group beats Acadia Realty Trust on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Brixmor Property Group

Brixmor Property Group, Inc. operates as a real estate investment trust, which engages in owning and operating a portfolio of grocery anchored community and neighborhood shopping centers. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in New York, NY.