Head to Head Analysis: Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND) versus Postal Realty Trust (NYSE:PSTL)

Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND) and Postal Realty Trust (NYSE:PSTL) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Gladstone Land and Postal Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gladstone Land	15.31%	2.01%	1.08%
Postal Realty Trust	14.77%	4.20%	1.99%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Gladstone Land and Postal Realty Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gladstone Land	$88.34 million	4.87	$13.53 million	($0.12)	-85.50
Postal Realty Trust	$95.82 million	6.09	$14.15 million	$0.46	46.18

Postal Realty Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Gladstone Land. Gladstone Land is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Postal Realty Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Gladstone Land has a beta of 1.23, suggesting that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Postal Realty Trust has a beta of 0.74, suggesting that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Gladstone Land and Postal Realty Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gladstone Land	0	3	1	0	2.25
Postal Realty Trust	0	2	5	0	2.71

Gladstone Land presently has a consensus target price of $10.00, suggesting a potential downside of 2.53%. Postal Realty Trust has a consensus target price of $20.95, suggesting a potential downside of 1.37%. Given Postal Realty Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Postal Realty Trust is more favorable than Gladstone Land.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

53.6% of Gladstone Land shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.9% of Postal Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.1% of Gladstone Land shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 12.5% of Postal Realty Trust shares are owned 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.

Dividends

Gladstone Land pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.5%. Postal Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Gladstone Land pays out -466.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Postal Realty Trust pays out 213.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Gladstone Land has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Postal Realty Trust has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Gladstone Land is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Postal Realty Trust beats Gladstone Land on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gladstone Land

Founded in 1997, Gladstone Land is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires and owns farmland and farm-related properties located in major agricultural markets in the U.S. and leases its properties to unrelated third-party farmers. The Company, which reports the aggregate fair value of its farmland holdings on a quarterly basis, currently owns 169 farms, comprised of approximately 116,000 acres in 15 different states and over 45,000 acre-feet of banked water in California, valued at a total of approximately $1.6 billion. Gladstone Land’s farms are predominantly located in regions where its tenants are able to grow fresh produce annual row crops, such as berries and vegetables, which are generally planted and harvested annually. The Company also owns farms growing permanent crops, such as almonds, apples, cherries, figs, lemons, olives, pistachios, and other orchards, as well as blueberry groves and vineyards, which are generally planted every 20-plus years and harvested annually. Approximately 40% of the Company’s fresh produce acreage is either organic or in transition to become organic, and over 10% of its permanent crop acreage falls into this category. The Company may also acquire property related to farming, such as cooling facilities, processing buildings, packaging facilities, and distribution centers. Gladstone Land pays monthly distributions to its stockholders and has paid 129 consecutive monthly cash distributions on its common stock since its initial public offering in January 2013. The Company has increased its common distributions 32 times over the prior 35 quarters, and the current per-share distribution on its common stock is $0.0464 per month, or $0.5568 per year.

About Postal Realty Trust

Postal Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: PSTL) is an internally managed real estate investment trust that owns properties primarily leased to the United States Postal Service ("USPS"). PSTL is focused on acquiring the network of USPS properties, which provide a critical element of the nation's logistics infrastructure that facilitates cost effective and efficient last-mile delivery solutions. As of December 31, 2023, PSTL owned 1,509 properties (including two properties accounted for as financing leases) located in 49 states and one territory comprising approximately 5.9 million net leasable interior square feet. Subsequent to quarter-end and through February 23, 2024, PSTL closed on eight additional properties comprising approximately 33,000 net leasable interior square feet.