Head to Head Review: Healthpeak Properties (NYSE:DOC) and Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT)

Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT) and Healthpeak Properties (NYSE:DOC) are both real estate companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, profitability, dividends, risk, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Dividends

Medical Properties Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.0%. Healthpeak Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.0%. Medical Properties Trust pays out -600.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Healthpeak Properties pays out 348.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Medical Properties Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

71.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.6% of Healthpeak Properties shares are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Healthpeak Properties shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and Healthpeak Properties”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Medical Properties Trust	$972.02 million	2.22	-$277.05 million	($0.06)	-60.17
Healthpeak Properties	$543.46 million	25.70	$71.35 million	$0.35	57.88

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

Volatility and Risk

Medical Properties Trust has a beta of 1.4, meaning that its share price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Healthpeak Properties has a beta of 1.01, meaning that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and Healthpeak Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medical Properties Trust	-2.96%	-0.66%	-0.20%
Healthpeak Properties	8.24%	2.79%	1.17%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Medical Properties Trust and Healthpeak Properties, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medical Properties Trust	2	1	0	0	1.33
Healthpeak Properties	0	14	4	0	2.22

Medical Properties Trust currently has a consensus target price of $4.15, indicating a potential upside of 14.96%. Healthpeak Properties has a consensus target price of $22.10, indicating a potential upside of 9.09%. Given Medical Properties Trust’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Medical Properties Trust is more favorable than Healthpeak Properties.

Summary

Healthpeak Properties beats Medical Properties Trust on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Medical Properties Trust

Medical Properties Trust, Inc. is a self-advised real estate investment trust formed to capitalize on the changing trends in healthcare delivery by acquiring and developing net-leased healthcare facilities. MPT’s financing model allows hospitals and other healthcare facilities to unlock the value of their underlying real estate in order to fund facility improvements, technology upgrades, staff additions and new construction. Facilities include acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, and other medical and surgical facilities.

About Healthpeak Properties

Healthpeak Properties, Inc. is a fully integrated real estate investment trust (REIT) and S&P 500 company. Healthpeak owns, operates, and develops high-quality real estate for healthcare discovery and delivery.