Analyzing Kilroy Realty (NYSE:KRC) & Lineage (NASDAQ:LINE)

Lineage (NASDAQ:LINE) and Kilroy Realty (NYSE:KRC) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Lineage and Kilroy Realty”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lineage	$5.34 billion	1.55	-$686.00 million	($0.79)	-46.01
Kilroy Realty	$1.14 billion	4.29	$210.97 million	$2.71	15.19

Kilroy Realty has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Lineage. Lineage is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kilroy Realty, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

94.2% of Kilroy Realty shares are owned by institutional investors. 71.9% of Lineage shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.5% of Kilroy Realty shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Lineage pays an annual dividend of $2.11 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.8%. Kilroy Realty pays an annual dividend of $2.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. Lineage pays out -267.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kilroy Realty pays out 79.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Lineage is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Lineage and Kilroy Realty, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lineage	5	10	5	0	2.00
Kilroy Realty	1	9	3	0	2.15

Lineage presently has a consensus price target of $45.17, suggesting a potential upside of 24.25%. Kilroy Realty has a consensus price target of $41.92, suggesting a potential upside of 1.81%. Given Lineage’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Lineage is more favorable than Kilroy Realty.

Volatility & Risk

Lineage has a beta of -0.16, meaning that its share price is 116% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kilroy Realty has a beta of 1.07, meaning that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Lineage and Kilroy Realty’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lineage	-3.30%	-1.85%	-0.93%
Kilroy Realty	28.68%	5.75%	2.96%

Summary

Kilroy Realty beats Lineage on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lineage

Lineage, Inc. is the world’s largest global temperature-controlled warehouse REIT with a network of over 480 strategically located facilities totaling over 84.1 million square feet and 3.0 billion cubic feet of capacity across countries in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Coupling end-to-end supply chain solutions and technology, Lineage partners with some of the world’s largest food and beverage producers, retailers, and distributors to help increase distribution efficiency, advance sustainability, minimize supply chain waste, and, most importantly, feed the world.

About Kilroy Realty

Kilroy Realty Corporation (NYSE: KRC, the company, Kilroy) is a leading U.S. landlord and developer, with operations in San Diego, Greater Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Seattle and Austin. The company has earned global recognition for sustainability, building operations, innovation and design. As a pioneer and innovator in the creation of a more sustainable real estate industry, the company's approach to modern business environments helps drive creativity and productivity for some of the world's leading technology, entertainment, life science and business services companies. The company is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) and member of the S&P MidCap 400 Index with more than seven decades of experience developing, acquiring and managing office, life science and mixed-use projects. As of December 31, 2023, Kilroy's stabilized portfolio totaled approximately 17.0 million square feet of primarily office and life science space that was 85.0% occupied and 86.4% leased. The company also had approximately 1,000 residential units in Hollywood and San Diego, which had a quarterly average occupancy of 92.5%. In addition, the company had two in-process life science redevelopment projects totaling approximately 100,000 square feet with total estimated redevelopment costs of $80.0 million and one approximately 875,000 square foot in-process development project with a total estimated investment of $1.0 billion.