Ryman Hospitality Properties (NYSE:RHP) & Stag Industrial (NYSE:STAG) Critical Comparison

Ryman Hospitality Properties (NYSE:RHP) and Stag Industrial (NYSE:STAG) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, earnings, valuation and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Ryman Hospitality Properties and Stag Industrial, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ryman Hospitality Properties	0	2	8	1	2.91
Stag Industrial	0	6	3	0	2.33

Ryman Hospitality Properties currently has a consensus price target of $111.40, suggesting a potential upside of 17.81%. Stag Industrial has a consensus price target of $38.89, suggesting a potential upside of 1.20%. Given Ryman Hospitality Properties’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Ryman Hospitality Properties is more favorable than Stag Industrial.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

94.5% of Ryman Hospitality Properties shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.7% of Stag Industrial shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.0% of Ryman Hospitality Properties shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Stag Industrial shares are owned by 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.

Risk & Volatility

Ryman Hospitality Properties has a beta of 1.6, meaning that its stock price is 60% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Stag Industrial has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Ryman Hospitality Properties and Stag Industrial”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ryman Hospitality Properties	$2.49 billion	2.40	$271.64 million	$3.78	25.02
Stag Industrial	$823.61 million	8.71	$189.22 million	$1.30	29.56

Ryman Hospitality Properties has higher revenue and earnings than Stag Industrial. Ryman Hospitality Properties is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Stag Industrial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Ryman Hospitality Properties pays an annual dividend of $4.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Stag Industrial pays an annual dividend of $1.49 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Ryman Hospitality Properties pays out 121.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Stag Industrial pays out 114.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ryman Hospitality Properties has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Stag Industrial has raised its dividend for 7 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Ryman Hospitality Properties and Stag Industrial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ryman Hospitality Properties	10.74%	41.65%	4.82%
Stag Industrial	29.24%	6.82%	3.52%

Summary

Ryman Hospitality Properties beats Stag Industrial on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ryman Hospitality Properties

Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE: RHP) is a leading lodging and hospitality real estate investment trust that specializes in upscale convention center resorts and entertainment experiences. The Company's holdings include Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center; Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center; Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center; Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center; and Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, five of the top seven largest non-gaming convention center hotels in the United States based on total indoor meeting space. The Company also owns the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa as well as two ancillary hotels adjacent to our Gaylord Hotels properties. The Company's hotel portfolio is managed by Marriott International and includes a combined total of 11,414 rooms as well as more than 3 million square feet of total indoor and outdoor meeting space in top convention and leisure destinations across the country. RHP also owns a 70% controlling ownership interest in Opry Entertainment Group (OEG), which is composed of entities owning a growing collection of iconic and emerging country music brands, including the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, WSM 650 AM, Ole Red, Nashville-area attractions, and Block 21, a mixed-use entertainment, lodging, office and retail complex, including the W Austin Hotel and the ACL Live at the Moody Theater, located in downtown Austin, Texas. RHP operates OEG as its Entertainment segment in a taxable REIT subsidiary, and its results are consolidated in the Company's financial results.

About Stag Industrial

STAG Industrial, Inc. is a real estate investment company, which engages in acquiring, owning, and managing single-tenant, industrial real estate assets. It offers industrial real estate operating platform to real estate ownership. The company was founded by Benjamin S. Butcher on July 21, 2010 and is headquartered in Boston, MA.