Reviewing Medical Properties Trust (MPT) and The Competition

Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT) is one of 90 public companies in the “Real Estate Investment Trusts” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Medical Properties Trust to related companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and risk.

Dividends

Medical Properties Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.3%. Medical Properties Trust pays out -78.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Real Estate Investment Trusts” companies pay a dividend yield of 4.0% and pay out 102.7% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Medical Properties Trust is clearly a better dividend stock than its competitors, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Medical Properties Trust	$972.02 million	-$277.05 million	-12.33
Medical Properties Trust Competitors	$463.71 million	$16.35 million	26.59

Medical Properties Trust has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its competitors. Medical Properties Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Risk & Volatility

Medical Properties Trust has a beta of 1.43, indicating that its stock price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medical Properties Trust’s competitors have a beta of 1.15, indicating that their average stock price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Medical Properties Trust and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medical Properties Trust	1	0	1	0	2.00
Medical Properties Trust Competitors	2346	4059	2395	22	2.01

Medical Properties Trust currently has a consensus price target of $8.00, indicating a potential upside of 41.09%. As a group, “Real Estate Investment Trusts” companies have a potential upside of 11.58%. Given Medical Properties Trust’s higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Medical Properties Trust is more favorable than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and its competitors’ 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%
Medical Properties Trust Competitors	-34.14%	-18.20%	-0.23%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

71.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.7% of shares of all “Real Estate Investment Trusts” companies are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Medical Properties Trust shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.9% of shares of all “Real Estate Investment Trusts” companies are held by company 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 its competitors on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

Medical Properties Trust Company Profile

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.