SL Green Realty (NYSE:SLG) and CareTrust REIT (NYSE:CTRE) Head to Head Survey

SL Green Realty (NYSE:SLG) and CareTrust REIT (NYSE:CTRE) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for SL Green Realty and CareTrust REIT, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SL Green Realty	2	9	8	0	2.32
CareTrust REIT	1	1	8	3	3.00

SL Green Realty currently has a consensus price target of $51.45, suggesting a potential upside of 36.98%. CareTrust REIT has a consensus price target of $42.82, suggesting a potential upside of 11.10%. Given SL Green Realty’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe SL Green Realty is more favorable than CareTrust REIT.

Profitability

This table compares SL Green Realty and CareTrust REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SL Green Realty	-9.66%	-2.44%	-0.86%
CareTrust REIT	67.28%	8.98%	6.83%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

90.0% of SL Green Realty shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.8% of CareTrust REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.0% of SL Green Realty shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of CareTrust REIT shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

SL Green Realty pays an annual dividend of $2.47 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.6%. CareTrust REIT pays an annual dividend of $1.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. SL Green Realty pays out -153.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CareTrust REIT pays out 86.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. SL Green Realty has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and CareTrust REIT has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. SL Green Realty is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Volatility and Risk

SL Green Realty has a beta of 1.61, suggesting that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CareTrust REIT has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SL Green Realty and CareTrust REIT”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SL Green Realty	$1.00 billion	2.67	-$88.28 million	($1.61)	-23.33
CareTrust REIT	$476.39 million	18.06	$320.54 million	$1.55	24.86

CareTrust REIT has lower revenue, but higher earnings than SL Green Realty. SL Green Realty is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CareTrust REIT, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

CareTrust REIT beats SL Green Realty on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SL Green Realty

3SL Green Realty Corp., Manhattan’s largest office landlord, is a fully integrated real estate investment trust, or REIT, that is focused primarily on acquiring, managing and maximizing value of Manhattan commercial properties. As of June 30, 2022, SL Green held interests in 64 buildings totaling 34.4 million square feet. This included ownership interests in 26.3 million square feet of Manhattan buildings and 7.2 million square feet securing debt and preferred equity investments.

About CareTrust REIT

CareTrust REIT, Inc. is a self-administered, publicly-traded real estate investment trust engaged in the ownership, acquisition, development and leasing of skilled nursing, seniors housing and other healthcare-related properties. With a nationwide portfolio of long-term net-leased properties, and a growing portfolio of quality operators leasing them, CareTrust REIT is pursuing both external and organic growth opportunities across the United States.