Head-To-Head Contrast: Medalist Diversified REIT (NASDAQ:MDRR) versus CTO Realty Growth (NYSE:CTO)

CTO Realty Growth (NYSE:CTO) and Medalist Diversified REIT (NASDAQ:MDRR) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares CTO Realty Growth and Medalist Diversified REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CTO Realty Growth	6.75%	1.76%	0.81%
Medalist Diversified REIT	-21.19%	-7.87%	-2.37%

Dividends

CTO Realty Growth pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.8%. Medalist Diversified REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.27 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. CTO Realty Growth pays out 1,688.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Medalist Diversified REIT pays out -14.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Medalist Diversified REIT has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for CTO Realty Growth and Medalist Diversified REIT, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CTO Realty Growth	0	2	3	2	3.00
Medalist Diversified REIT	1	0	0	0	1.00

CTO Realty Growth currently has a consensus price target of $21.50, indicating a potential upside of 10.14%. Given CTO Realty Growth’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe CTO Realty Growth is more favorable than Medalist Diversified REIT.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

67.2% of CTO Realty Growth shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 17.4% of Medalist Diversified REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.0% of CTO Realty Growth shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 43.8% of Medalist Diversified REIT shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

CTO Realty Growth has a beta of 0.64, suggesting that its share price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medalist Diversified REIT has a beta of 0.5, suggesting that its share price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares CTO Realty Growth and Medalist Diversified REIT”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CTO Realty Growth	$149.54 million	4.25	$10.09 million	$0.09	216.89
Medalist Diversified REIT	$9.73 million	1.34	$30,000.00	($1.81)	-6.50

CTO Realty Growth has higher revenue and earnings than Medalist Diversified REIT. Medalist Diversified REIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CTO Realty Growth, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

CTO Realty Growth beats Medalist Diversified REIT on 15 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CTO Realty Growth

CTO Realty Growth, Inc. is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns and operates a portfolio of high-quality, retail-based properties located primarily in higher growth markets in the United States. CTO also externally manages and owns a meaningful interest in Alpine Income Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE: PINE), a publicly traded net lease REIT.

About Medalist Diversified REIT

Medalist Diversified REIT Inc. is a Virginia-based real estate investment trust that specializes in acquiring, owning and managing commercial real estate in the Southeast region of the U.S. The Company's strategy is to focus on commercial real estate which is expected to provide an attractive balance of risk and returns. Medalist utilizes a rigorous, consistent and replicable process for sourcing and conducting due diligence of acquisitions.