Head-To-Head Contrast: Americold Realty Trust (NYSE:COLD) vs. American Tower (NYSE:AMT)

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

Risk and Volatility

American Tower has a beta of 0.85, suggesting that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Americold Realty Trust has a beta of 0.84, suggesting that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

92.7% of American Tower shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.1% of Americold Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of American Tower shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Americold Realty Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares American Tower and Americold Realty Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Tower	$10.45 billion	8.04	$2.26 billion	$6.26	28.68
Americold Realty Trust	$2.61 billion	1.13	-$94.31 million	($0.22)	-47.09

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Tower	28.11%	28.79%	4.69%
Americold Realty Trust	-2.09%	-1.68%	-0.69%

Dividends

American Tower pays an annual dividend of $6.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Americold Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.9%. American Tower pays out 108.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Americold Realty Trust pays out -418.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Tower has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Americold Realty Trust has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Americold Realty Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for American Tower and Americold Realty Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Tower	0	5	13	2	2.85
Americold Realty Trust	3	7	5	0	2.13

American Tower currently has a consensus target price of $228.44, suggesting a potential upside of 27.22%. Americold Realty Trust has a consensus target price of $16.62, suggesting a potential upside of 60.38%. Given Americold Realty Trust’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Americold Realty Trust is more favorable than American Tower.

Summary

American Tower beats Americold Realty Trust on 12 of the 17 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 Americold Realty Trust

Americold Realty Trust, Inc. is a real estate investment trust, which focuses on the ownership, operation, development, and acquisition of temperature-controlled warehouses. It operates through the following segments: Warehouse, Third-Party Managed, Transportation, and Other. The Warehouse segment collects rent and storage fees from customers to store frozen and perishable food and other products within the firm’s real estate portfolio. The Third-Party Managed segment manages warehouses on behalf of third parties and provides warehouse management services to food retailers and manufacturers in customer-owned facilities. The Transportation segment is involved in brokering and managing transportation of frozen and perishable food and other products. The Other segment includes ownership in a limestone quarry in Carthage, Missouri. The company was founded in 1931 and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.