Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust (NASDAQ:WHLR – Get Free Report) and Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR – Get Free Report) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, dividends and valuation.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
35.3% of Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.7% of Digital Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 40.6% of Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Digital Realty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Profitability
This table compares Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust and Digital Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust | -10.98% | N/A | -1.70% |
Digital Realty Trust | 20.58% | 5.93% | 2.61% |
Volatility and Risk
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust and Digital 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 | |
Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust | $103.61 million | 0.07 | -$4.69 million | ($4,458.03) | 0.00 |
Digital Realty Trust | $5.46 billion | 8.98 | $948.84 million | $3.60 | 43.61 |
Digital Realty Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust. Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Digital Realty Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust and Digital Realty Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.
Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A |
Digital Realty Trust | 1 | 9 | 10 | 1 | 2.52 |
Digital Realty Trust has a consensus price target of $156.61, suggesting a potential downside of 0.25%. Given Digital Realty Trust’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Digital Realty Trust is more favorable than Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust.
Dividends
Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.4%. Digital Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $4.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust pays out 0.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Digital Realty Trust pays out 135.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
Digital Realty Trust beats Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust
Headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc. is a fully integrated, self-managed commercial real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on owning and operating income-producing retail properties with a primary focus on grocery-anchored centers.
About Digital Realty Trust
Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL, the company's global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected data communities that matter to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in 50+ metros across 25+ countries on six continents.
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