Financial Survey: Realty Income (NYSE:O) and Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE)

Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE) and Realty Income (NYSE:O) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

94.9% of Urban Edge Properties shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.8% of Realty Income shares are held by institutional investors. 2.4% of Urban Edge Properties shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Realty Income shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Urban Edge Properties has a beta of 1.06, suggesting that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Realty Income has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Urban Edge Properties and Realty Income’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Urban Edge Properties	19.82%	6.79%	2.82%
Realty Income	17.17%	2.45%	1.37%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Urban Edge Properties and Realty Income”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Urban Edge Properties	$471.93 million	5.58	$93.54 million	$0.75	27.89
Realty Income	$5.27 billion	11.64	$860.77 million	$1.08	61.75

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

Dividends

Urban Edge Properties pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Realty Income pays an annual dividend of $3.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Urban Edge Properties pays out 101.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Realty Income pays out 300.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Urban Edge Properties has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Realty Income has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Urban Edge Properties and Realty Income, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Urban Edge Properties	0	5	1	0	2.17
Realty Income	1	10	5	0	2.25

Urban Edge Properties currently has a consensus target price of $22.00, suggesting a potential upside of 5.16%. Realty Income has a consensus target price of $63.21, suggesting a potential downside of 5.21%. Given Urban Edge Properties’ higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Urban Edge Properties is more favorable than Realty Income.

Summary

Urban Edge Properties beats Realty Income on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Urban Edge Properties

Urban Edge Properties is a NYSE listed real estate investment trust focused on owning, managing, acquiring, developing, and redeveloping retail real estate in urban communities, primarily in the Washington, D.C. to Boston corridor. Urban Edge owns 76 properties totaling 17.1 million square feet of gross leasable area.

About Realty Income

Realty Income, The Monthly Dividend Company, is an S&P 500 company and member of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index. We invest in people and places to deliver dependable monthly dividends that increase over time. The company is structured as a real estate investment trust (“REIT”), and its monthly dividends are supported by the cash flow from over 15,450 real estate properties (including properties acquired in the Spirit merger in January 2024) primarily owned under long-term net lease agreements with commercial clients. To date, the company has declared 644 consecutive monthly dividends on its shares of common stock throughout its 55-year operating history and increased the dividend 123 times since Realty Income’s public listing in 1994 (NYSE: O).