Comparing One Liberty Properties (NYSE:OLP) & American Tower (NYSE:AMT)

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) and One Liberty Properties (NYSE:OLP) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings and risk.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.7% of American Tower shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.2% of One Liberty Properties shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of American Tower shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 25.4% of One Liberty Properties shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

American Tower has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, One Liberty Properties has a beta of 1.36, indicating that its share price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

American Tower pays an annual dividend of $6.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. One Liberty Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.3%. American Tower pays out 273.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. One Liberty Properties pays out 111.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. One Liberty Properties is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for American Tower and One Liberty Properties, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Tower	0	3	9	1	2.85
One Liberty Properties	0	0	1	0	3.00

American Tower currently has a consensus target price of $235.54, suggesting a potential upside of 18.46%. One Liberty Properties has a consensus target price of $28.00, suggesting a potential downside of 1.37%. Given American Tower’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe American Tower is more favorable than One Liberty Properties.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares American Tower and One Liberty Properties”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Tower	$11.14 billion	8.34	$1.48 billion	$2.37	83.90
One Liberty Properties	$90.65 million	6.70	$29.61 million	$1.62	17.52

American Tower has higher revenue and earnings than One Liberty Properties. One Liberty Properties is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Tower, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares American Tower and One Liberty Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Tower	10.05%	22.01%	3.55%
One Liberty Properties	38.96%	11.35%	4.58%

Summary

American Tower beats One Liberty Properties on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About American Tower

American Tower, one of the largest global REITs, is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a portfolio of over 224,000 communications sites and a highly interconnected footprint of U.S. data center facilities.

About One Liberty Properties

One Liberty is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust incorporated in Maryland in 1982. The Company acquires, owns and manages a geographically diversified portfolio consisting primarily of industrial and retail properties. Many of these properties are subject to long-term net leases under which the tenant is typically responsible for the property’s real estate taxes, insurance and ordinary maintenance and repairs.