Piedmont Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) and CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE) Head-To-Head Contrast

CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE) and Piedmont Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for CubeSmart and Piedmont Realty Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CubeSmart	0	11	5	0	2.31
Piedmont Realty Trust	1	2	1	0	2.00

CubeSmart currently has a consensus target price of $44.13, indicating a potential upside of 9.48%. Piedmont Realty Trust has a consensus target price of $9.00, indicating a potential upside of 12.71%. Given Piedmont Realty Trust’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Piedmont Realty Trust is more favorable than CubeSmart.

Profitability

This table compares CubeSmart and Piedmont Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CubeSmart	33.31%	12.49%	5.37%
Piedmont Realty Trust	-14.80%	-5.44%	-2.09%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CubeSmart and Piedmont Realty Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CubeSmart	$929.08 million	9.89	$391.18 million	$1.56	25.84
Piedmont Realty Trust	$564.99 million	1.76	-$83.62 million	($0.68)	-11.74

CubeSmart has higher revenue and earnings than Piedmont Realty Trust. Piedmont Realty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CubeSmart, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

CubeSmart has a beta of 1.12, suggesting that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Piedmont Realty Trust has a beta of 1.26, suggesting that its stock price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

97.6% of CubeSmart shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.5% of Piedmont Realty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of CubeSmart shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Piedmont Realty Trust shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

CubeSmart beats Piedmont Realty Trust on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CubeSmart

CubeSmart is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust. The Company's self-storage properties are designed to offer affordable, easily accessible and, in most locations, climate-controlled storage space for residential and commercial customers. According to the 2023 Self-Storage Almanac, CubeSmart is one of the top three owners and operators of self-storage properties in the United States.

About Piedmont Realty Trust

Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (also referred to herein as "Piedmont" or the "Company") (NYSE: PDM) is an owner, manager, developer, redeveloper and operator of high-quality, Class A office properties located primarily in major U.S. Sunbelt markets. The Company is a fully-integrated, self-managed real estate investment trust ("REIT") with local management offices in each of its markets and is investment-grade rated by Standard & Poor's and Moody's. The Company was designated an Energy Star Partner of the Year for 2021, 2022 and 2023, and it was the only office REIT headquartered in the Southeast to receive those designations. Approximately 85% of the Company's square footage is Energy Star certified and nearly 70% is LEED certified. Piedmont is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.