Chatham Lodging Trust (NYSE:CLDT) and EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) Head-To-Head Review

Chatham Lodging Trust (NYSE:CLDT) and EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Chatham Lodging Trust and EastGroup Properties, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Chatham Lodging Trust	1	1	2	0	2.25
EastGroup Properties	0	5	10	0	2.67

Chatham Lodging Trust currently has a consensus price target of $11.00, suggesting a potential upside of 10.28%. EastGroup Properties has a consensus price target of $205.33, suggesting a potential upside of 1.58%. Given Chatham Lodging Trust’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Chatham Lodging Trust is more favorable than EastGroup Properties.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Chatham Lodging Trust and EastGroup Properties”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Chatham Lodging Trust	$295.08 million	1.58	$15.05 million	$0.02	498.75
EastGroup Properties	$721.34 million	15.07	$257.40 million	$5.50	36.75

EastGroup Properties has higher revenue and earnings than Chatham Lodging Trust. EastGroup Properties is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Chatham Lodging Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

88.4% of Chatham Lodging Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.1% of EastGroup Properties shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.1% of Chatham Lodging Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of EastGroup Properties shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Chatham Lodging Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. EastGroup Properties pays an annual dividend of $6.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Chatham Lodging Trust pays out 2,000.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. EastGroup Properties pays out 112.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Chatham Lodging Trust has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years and EastGroup Properties has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Chatham Lodging Trust and EastGroup Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Chatham Lodging Trust	3.14%	1.18%	0.77%
EastGroup Properties	39.69%	8.37%	5.45%

Volatility and Risk

Chatham Lodging Trust has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, EastGroup Properties has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

EastGroup Properties beats Chatham Lodging Trust on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Chatham Lodging Trust

Chatham Lodging Trust is a self-advised, publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) focused primarily on investing in upscale, extended-stay hotels and premium-branded, select-service hotels. The company owns 39 hotels totaling 5,915 rooms/suites in 16 states and the District of Columbia.

About EastGroup Properties

EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE: EGP), a member of the S&P Mid-Cap 400 and Russell 1000 Indexes, is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust focused on the development, acquisition and operation of industrial properties in major Sunbelt markets throughout the United States with an emphasis in the states of Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and North Carolina. The Company's goal is to maximize shareholder value by being a leading provider in its markets of functional, flexible and quality business distribution space for location sensitive customers (primarily in the 20,000 to 100,000 square foot range). The Company's strategy for growth is based on ownership of premier distribution facilities generally clustered near major transportation features in supply-constrained submarkets. The Company's portfolio, including development projects and value-add acquisitions in lease-up and under construction, currently includes approximately 59 million square feet.