Reviewing Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT) & United Development Funding IV (OTCMKTS:UDFI)

Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT) and United Development Funding IV (OTCMKTS:UDFI) are both real estate companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and United Development Funding IV’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medical Properties Trust	-28.50%	-5.83%	-1.85%
United Development Funding IV	N/A	N/A	N/A

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and United Development Funding IV”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Medical Properties Trust	$972.02 million	3.58	-$277.05 million	($0.46)	-12.59
United Development Funding IV	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

United Development Funding IV has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Medical Properties Trust.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Medical Properties Trust and United Development Funding IV, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medical Properties Trust	1	0	1	0	2.00
United Development Funding IV	0	0	0	0	0.00

Medical Properties Trust presently has a consensus target price of $8.00, indicating a potential upside of 38.17%. Given Medical Properties Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Medical Properties Trust is more favorable than United Development Funding IV.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

71.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Medical Properties Trust shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of United Development Funding IV shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Medical Properties Trust beats United Development Funding IV on 6 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Medical Properties Trust

Medical Properties Trust, Inc. is a self-advised real estate investment trust formed to capitalize on the changing trends in healthcare delivery by acquiring and developing net-leased healthcare facilities. MPT’s financing model allows hospitals and other healthcare facilities to unlock the value of their underlying real estate in order to fund facility improvements, technology upgrades, staff additions and new construction. Facilities include acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, and other medical and surgical facilities.

About United Development Funding IV

United Development Funding IV invests in secured loans for the acquisition and development of land into single-family home lots, and the construction of model and new single-family homes. It also makes equity investments in residential real estate. The company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust. As a result, it would not be subject to corporate income tax on that portion of its net income that is distributed to shareholders. United Development Funding IV was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Grapevine, Texas.