Head-To-Head Review: Easterly Government Properties (NYSE:DEA) & Hudson Pacific Properties (NYSE:HPP)

Hudson Pacific Properties (NYSE:HPP) and Easterly Government Properties (NYSE:DEA) are both small-cap real estate companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Hudson Pacific Properties and Easterly Government Properties, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hudson Pacific Properties	3	6	4	0	2.08
Easterly Government Properties	1	4	1	0	2.00

Hudson Pacific Properties presently has a consensus price target of $15.45, indicating a potential upside of 49.25%. Easterly Government Properties has a consensus price target of $25.80, indicating a potential upside of 18.27%. Given Hudson Pacific Properties’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Hudson Pacific Properties is more favorable than Easterly Government Properties.

Profitability

This table compares Hudson Pacific Properties and Easterly Government Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hudson Pacific Properties	-70.04%	-20.76%	-7.73%
Easterly Government Properties	2.86%	0.75%	0.30%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Hudson Pacific Properties and Easterly Government Properties”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hudson Pacific Properties	$831.10 million	0.68	-$561.69 million	($8.85)	-1.17
Easterly Government Properties	$336.10 million	3.07	$13.00 million	$0.21	103.88

Easterly Government Properties has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Hudson Pacific Properties. Hudson Pacific Properties is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Easterly Government Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Hudson Pacific Properties has a beta of 1.96, meaning that its stock price is 96% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Easterly Government Properties has a beta of 0.99, meaning that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

97.6% of Hudson Pacific Properties shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.5% of Easterly Government Properties shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.5% of Hudson Pacific Properties shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.5% of Easterly Government Properties shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Easterly Government Properties beats Hudson Pacific Properties on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hudson Pacific Properties

Hudson Pacific Properties (NYSE: HPP) is a real estate investment trust serving dynamic tech and media tenants in global epicenters for these synergistic, converging and secular growth industries. Hudson Pacific's unique and high-barrier tech and media focus leverages a full-service, end-to-end value creation platform forged through deep strategic relationships and niche expertise across identifying, acquiring, transforming and developing properties into world-class amenitized, collaborative and sustainable office and studio space.

About Easterly Government Properties

Easterly Government Properties, Inc. (NYSE: DEA) is based in Washington, D.C., and focuses primarily on the acquisition, development and management of Class A commercial properties that are leased to the U.S. Government. Easterly’s experienced management team brings specialized insight into the strategy and needs of mission-critical U.S. Government agencies for properties leased to such agencies either directly or through the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA).