Seritage Growth Properties (NYSE:SRG) versus RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) Financial Survey

Seritage Growth Properties (NYSE:SRG) and RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Seritage Growth Properties and RLJ Lodging Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Seritage Growth Properties	1	0	0	0	1.00
RLJ Lodging Trust	3	3	2	1	2.11

RLJ Lodging Trust has a consensus target price of $8.64, suggesting a potential upside of 13.80%. Given RLJ Lodging Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe RLJ Lodging Trust is more favorable than Seritage Growth Properties.

Volatility and Risk

Seritage Growth Properties has a beta of 2.43, meaning that its share price is 143% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, RLJ Lodging Trust has a beta of 1.07, meaning that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Seritage Growth Properties and RLJ Lodging Trust”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Seritage Growth Properties	$17.62 million	8.84	-$153.54 million	($1.42)	-1.95
RLJ Lodging Trust	$1.35 billion	0.85	$28.51 million	$0.02	379.75

RLJ Lodging Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Seritage Growth Properties. Seritage Growth Properties is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than RLJ Lodging Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Seritage Growth Properties and RLJ Lodging Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Seritage Growth Properties	-404.37%	-20.13%	-12.10%
RLJ Lodging Trust	2.11%	1.54%	0.59%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

78.9% of Seritage Growth Properties shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of RLJ Lodging Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Seritage Growth Properties shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of RLJ Lodging Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

RLJ Lodging Trust beats Seritage Growth Properties on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Seritage Growth Properties

Seritage Growth Properties operates as a real estate investment trust. The firm engages in the acquisition, ownership, development, redevelopment, management, and leasing of retail properties throughout the United States. Its property portfolio includes mall, shopping centers and freestanding locations. The company was founded on June 3, 2015 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

About RLJ Lodging Trust

RLJ Lodging Trust is a self-advised, publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns primarily premium-branded, high-margin, focused-service and compact full-service hotels. The Company's portfolio currently consists of 96 hotels with approximately 21,200 rooms, located in 23 states and the District of Columbia and an ownership interest in one unconsolidated hotel with 171 rooms.