Financial Survey: Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) versus TPG RE Finance Trust (NYSE:TRTX)

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) and TPG RE Finance Trust (NYSE:TRTX) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Essex Property Trust has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TPG RE Finance Trust has a beta of 2.17, indicating that its share price is 117% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Essex Property Trust and TPG RE Finance Trust”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Essex Property Trust	$1.67 billion	10.66	$405.83 million	$8.56	32.35
TPG RE Finance Trust	$390.25 million	1.73	-$116.63 million	$0.69	12.09

Essex Property Trust has higher revenue and earnings than TPG RE Finance Trust. TPG RE Finance Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Essex Property Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Essex Property Trust and TPG RE Finance Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Essex Property Trust	31.55%	9.72%	4.36%
TPG RE Finance Trust	19.65%	-7.50%	-2.19%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Essex Property Trust and TPG RE Finance Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Essex Property Trust	1	12	7	0	2.30
TPG RE Finance Trust	1	0	5	0	2.67

Essex Property Trust presently has a consensus target price of $304.32, indicating a potential upside of 9.89%. TPG RE Finance Trust has a consensus target price of $8.92, indicating a potential upside of 6.85%. Given Essex Property Trust’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Essex Property Trust is more favorable than TPG RE Finance Trust.

Dividends

Essex Property Trust pays an annual dividend of $9.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. TPG RE Finance Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.5%. Essex Property Trust pays out 114.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. TPG RE Finance Trust pays out 139.1% 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 30 consecutive years.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

96.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.1% of TPG RE Finance Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.8% of Essex Property Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.5% of TPG RE Finance Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Essex Property Trust beats TPG RE Finance Trust on 14 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 TPG RE Finance Trust

TPG RE Finance Trust, Inc., a commercial real estate finance company, originates, acquires, and manages commercial mortgage loans and other commercial real estate-related debt instruments in the United States. It invests in commercial mortgage loans; subordinate mortgage interests, mezzanine loans, secured real estate securities, note financing, preferred equity, and miscellaneous debt instruments; and commercial real estate collateralized loan obligations and commercial mortgage-backed securities secured by properties primarily in the multifamily, life science, mixed-use, hospitality, self storage, industrial, and retail real estate sectors. The company qualifies as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes. It generally would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. TPG RE Finance Trust, Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is based in New York, New York.