Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) vs. Office Properties Income Trust (NASDAQ:OPI) Head-To-Head Contrast

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) and Office Properties Income Trust (NASDAQ:OPI) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Essex Property Trust and Office Properties Income Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Essex Property Trust	1	10	9	0	2.40
Office Properties Income Trust	1	0	1	1	2.67

Essex Property Trust presently has a consensus target price of $293.03, suggesting a potential downside of 0.10%. Office Properties Income Trust has a consensus target price of $27.00, suggesting a potential upside of 54.29%. Given Office Properties Income Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Office Properties Income Trust is more favorable than Essex Property Trust.

Risk and Volatility

Essex Property Trust has a beta of 0.7, meaning that its share price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Office Properties Income Trust has a beta of 1.71, meaning that its share price is 71% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Essex Property Trust and Office Properties Income Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Essex Property Trust	30.03%	10.00%	4.36%
Office Properties Income Trust	-62.99%	-25.56%	-8.02%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Essex Property Trust and Office Properties Income Trust”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Essex Property Trust	$1.89 billion	9.99	$669.67 million	$8.90	32.96
Office Properties Income Trust	$466.97 million	2.77	-$136.11 million	N/A	N/A

Essex Property Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Office Properties Income Trust.

Dividends

Essex Property Trust pays an annual dividend of $10.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Office Properties Income Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Essex Property Trust pays out 116.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Essex Property Trust has raised its dividend for 31 consecutive years. Essex Property Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.4% of Office Properties Income Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Office Properties Income 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.

Summary

Essex Property Trust beats Office Properties Income Trust on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Essex Property Trust

Essex Property Trust, Inc., an S&P 500 company, is a fully integrated real estate investment trust (REIT) that acquires, develops, redevelops, and manages multifamily residential properties in selected West Coast markets. Essex currently has ownership interests in 252 apartment communities comprising approximately 62,000 apartment homes with an additional property in active development.

About Office Properties Income Trust

Office Properties Income Trust is a real estate investment trust. It owns, operates, and leases office buildings to single tenants and multi-tenant buildings. The company was founded on February 17, 2009 and is headquartered in Newton, MA.