Paramount Group (NYSE:PGRE) vs. COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) Head to Head Review

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) and Paramount Group (NYSE:PGRE) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability and earnings.

Dividends

COPT Defense Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Paramount Group pays an annual dividend of $0.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. COPT Defense Properties pays out 91.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Paramount Group pays out -31.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

65.6% of Paramount Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of COPT Defense Properties shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.8% of Paramount Group 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for COPT Defense Properties and Paramount Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
COPT Defense Properties	0	2	5	0	2.71
Paramount Group	1	4	1	0	2.00

COPT Defense Properties presently has a consensus target price of $33.14, suggesting a potential upside of 17.65%. Paramount Group has a consensus target price of $6.45, suggesting a potential downside of 2.27%. Given COPT Defense Properties’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe COPT Defense Properties is more favorable than Paramount Group.

Volatility & Risk

COPT Defense Properties has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Paramount Group has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares COPT Defense Properties and Paramount Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
COPT Defense Properties	$753.27 million	4.23	$138.93 million	$1.33	21.18
Paramount Group	$723.29 million	2.03	-$46.29 million	($0.45)	-14.67

COPT Defense Properties has higher revenue and earnings than Paramount Group. Paramount Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than COPT Defense Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares COPT Defense Properties and Paramount Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
COPT Defense Properties	19.99%	9.71%	3.50%
Paramount Group	-13.47%	-2.39%	-1.23%

Summary

COPT Defense Properties beats Paramount Group on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About COPT Defense Properties

COPT Defense Properties is a real estate investment trust. It acquires, develops, manages, sells, and leases out office properties and data centers. The firm operates through the following segments: Defense/Information Technology Locations, Regional Office, Wholesale Data Center, and Other. The company was founded on January 22,1988 and is headquartered in Columbia, MD.

About Paramount Group

Paramount Group, Inc. (“Paramount” or the “Company”) is a fully-integrated real estate investment trust that owns, operates, manages, acquires and redevelops high-quality, Class A office properties located in select central business district submarkets of New York and San Francisco. Paramount is focused on maximizing the value of its portfolio by leveraging the sought-after locations of its assets and its proven property management capabilities to attract and retain high-quality tenants.