Head to Head Comparison: COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) & Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI)

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) and Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Dividends

COPT Defense Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Crown Castle pays an annual dividend of $4.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. COPT Defense Properties pays out 91.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Crown Castle pays out -40.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Crown Castle is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk & Volatility

COPT Defense Properties has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Crown Castle has a beta of 0.96, meaning that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares COPT Defense Properties and Crown Castle”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
COPT Defense Properties	$750.00 million	4.46	$138.93 million	$1.33	22.20
Crown Castle	$6.57 billion	5.60	-$3.90 billion	($10.63)	-7.95

COPT Defense Properties has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Crown Castle. Crown Castle is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than COPT Defense Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

90.8% of Crown Castle shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of COPT Defense Properties shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Crown Castle shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares COPT Defense Properties and Crown Castle’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
COPT Defense Properties	19.99%	9.71%	3.50%
Crown Castle	-95.37%	-619.62%	-12.35%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for COPT Defense Properties and Crown Castle, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
COPT Defense Properties	0	2	5	0	2.71
Crown Castle	1	8	9	2	2.60

COPT Defense Properties currently has a consensus price target of $32.86, suggesting a potential upside of 11.27%. Crown Castle has a consensus price target of $110.33, suggesting a potential upside of 30.53%. Given Crown Castle’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Crown Castle is more favorable than COPT Defense Properties.

Summary

Crown Castle beats COPT Defense Properties on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About COPT Defense Properties

COPT Defense Properties is a real estate investment trust. It acquires, develops, manages, sells, and leases out office properties and data centers. The firm operates through the following segments: Defense/Information Technology Locations, Regional Office, Wholesale Data Center, and Other. The company was founded on January 22,1988 and is headquartered in Columbia, MD.

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 90,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions across every major U.S. market. This nationwide portfolio of communications infrastructure connects cities and communities to essential data, technology and wireless service – bringing information, ideas and innovations to the people and businesses that need them.