Critical Comparison: American Tower (NYSE:AMT) versus Universal Health Realty Income Trust (NYSE:UHT)

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) and Universal Health Realty Income Trust (NYSE:UHT) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for American Tower and Universal Health Realty Income Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Tower	0	5	14	1	2.80
Universal Health Realty Income Trust	0	1	0	0	2.00

American Tower presently has a consensus target price of $216.20, indicating a potential upside of 17.57%. Given American Tower’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe American Tower is more favorable than Universal Health Realty Income Trust.

Risk and Volatility

American Tower has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Universal Health Realty Income Trust has a beta of 0.83, suggesting that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares American Tower and Universal Health Realty Income Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Tower	26.81%	27.79%	4.57%
Universal Health Realty Income Trust	18.00%	11.44%	3.15%

Dividends

American Tower pays an annual dividend of $7.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Universal Health Realty Income Trust pays an annual dividend of $2.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.1%. American Tower pays out 115.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Universal Health Realty Income Trust pays out 232.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. American Tower has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Universal Health Realty Income Trust has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Universal Health Realty Income Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares American Tower and Universal Health Realty Income Trust”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	$10.64 billion	8.05	$2.53 billion	$6.19	29.71
Universal Health Realty Income Trust	$99.19 million	5.85	$17.61 million	$1.28	32.67

American Tower has higher revenue and earnings than Universal Health Realty Income Trust. American Tower is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Universal Health Realty Income Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.7% of American Tower shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.7% of Universal Health Realty Income Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of American Tower shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of Universal Health Realty Income Trust 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.

Summary

American Tower beats Universal Health Realty Income Trust on 14 of the 18 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 Universal Health Realty Income Trust

Universal Health Realty Income Trust, a real estate investment trust, invests in healthcare and human-service related facilities including acute care hospitals, behavioral health care hospitals, specialty facilities, medical/office buildings, free-standing emergency departments and childcare centers. We have investments or commitments in seventy-six properties located in twenty-one states.