Head-To-Head Comparison: COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) vs. Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI)

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) and Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

90.8% of Crown Castle shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of COPT Defense Properties shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Crown Castle shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares COPT Defense Properties and Crown Castle’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%
Crown Castle	-95.37%	-619.62%	-12.35%

Dividends

COPT Defense Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Crown Castle pays an annual dividend of $4.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. 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. Crown Castle pays out -40.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Crown Castle is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares COPT Defense Properties 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
COPT Defense Properties	$753.27 million	4.13	$138.93 million	$1.33	20.66
Crown Castle	$6.42 billion	6.01	-$3.90 billion	($10.63)	-8.34

COPT Defense Properties has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Crown Castle. Crown Castle 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for COPT Defense Properties and Crown Castle, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
COPT Defense Properties	0	2	5	0	2.71
Crown Castle	1	7	9	3	2.70

COPT Defense Properties presently has a consensus target price of $33.14, suggesting a potential upside of 20.59%. Crown Castle has a consensus target price of $111.35, suggesting a potential upside of 25.63%. Given Crown Castle’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Crown Castle is more favorable than COPT Defense Properties.

Volatility and Risk

COPT Defense Properties has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Crown Castle has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Crown Castle beats COPT Defense Properties on 9 of the 17 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 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.