Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE:HR) & Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) Financial Comparison

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) and Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE:HR) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

57.9% of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Healthcare Realty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Healthcare Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.7%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners pays out 256.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Healthcare Realty Trust pays out -90.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has raised its dividend for 18 consecutive years. Healthcare Realty Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Healthcare Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	3.70%	2.74%	0.75%
Healthcare Realty Trust	-30.51%	-7.32%	-3.56%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Healthcare 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
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	$21.04 billion	0.77	$351.00 million	$0.67	52.31
Healthcare Realty Trust	$1.27 billion	4.68	-$654.48 million	($1.06)	-15.93

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Healthcare Realty Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	0	3	4	2	2.89
Healthcare Realty Trust	1	7	3	0	2.18

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners presently has a consensus price target of $41.25, suggesting a potential upside of 17.69%. Healthcare Realty Trust has a consensus price target of $18.89, suggesting a potential upside of 11.83%. Given Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is more favorable than Healthcare Realty Trust.

Risk & Volatility

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a beta of 1.09, indicating that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Healthcare Realty Trust has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners beats Healthcare Realty Trust on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. owns and operates utilities, transport, midstream, and data businesses in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company's Utilities segment operates approximately 2,900 km of electricity transmission lines; 4,200 km of natural gas pipelines; 8.1 million electricity and natural gas connections; and 0.6 million long-term contracted sub-metering services. This segment also offers heating, cooling, and energy solutions; gas distribution; water heaters; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioner rental, as well as other home services. Its Transport segment offers transportation, storage, and handling services for merchandise goods, commodities, and passengers through a network of approximately 22,000 km of track; 5,500 km of track network; 9,800 km of rail; and 3,300 km of motorways. The company's Midstream segment offers natural gas transmission, gathering and processing, and storage services through approximately 15,000 km of natural gas transmission pipelines; 570 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage; 17 natural gas processing plants; and 10,600 km of gas gathering pipelines, as well as 525,000 tonnes polypropylene production capacity. Its Data segment operates approximately 228,000 operational telecom towers; approximately 54,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables; approximately 1 million fiber-to-the-premise connections; two semiconductor manufacturing facilities; and 70 distributed antenna systems, as well as 135 data centers and 750 megawatts of critical load capacity and an additional approximate 670 megawatts of contracted capacity. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. operates as a subsidiary of Brookfield Corporation.

About Healthcare Realty Trust

Healthcare Realty Trust, Inc. provides real estate investment services. It owns, leases, manages, acquires, finances, develops, and redevelops income-producing real estate properties associated primarily with the delivery of outpatient healthcare services throughout the United States of America. The company was founded by David R. Emery in 1992 and is headquartered in Nashville, TN.