Head to Head Analysis: Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) and NETSTREIT (NYSE:NTST)

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) and NETSTREIT (NYSE:NTST) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and profitability.

Dividends

Uniti Group pays an annual dividend of $0.45 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.2%. NETSTREIT pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. Uniti Group pays out 173.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. NETSTREIT pays out -560.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NETSTREIT has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Uniti Group and NETSTREIT, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Uniti Group	0	3	0	1	2.50
NETSTREIT	0	1	6	2	3.11

Uniti Group currently has a consensus price target of $5.95, suggesting a potential upside of 34.92%. NETSTREIT has a consensus price target of $18.16, suggesting a potential upside of 13.16%. Given Uniti Group’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Uniti Group is more favorable than NETSTREIT.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

87.5% of Uniti Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.7% of Uniti Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of NETSTREIT shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Uniti Group and NETSTREIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Uniti Group	8.82%	-4.12%	2.02%
NETSTREIT	-2.96%	-0.35%	-0.22%

Risk and Volatility

Uniti Group has a beta of 1.59, meaning that its share price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NETSTREIT has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Uniti Group and NETSTREIT”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Uniti Group	$1.17 billion	0.92	-$81.71 million	$0.26	16.96
NETSTREIT	$157.68 million	8.31	$6.84 million	($0.15)	-106.97

NETSTREIT has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Uniti Group. NETSTREIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Uniti Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Uniti Group beats NETSTREIT on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Uniti Group

Uniti Group, Inc. is a real estate investment trust company, which engages in the acquisition, construction, and leasing of properties. It operates through the following business segments: Uniti Leasing, Uniti Fiber, and Corporate. The Uniti Leasing segment involves mission-critical communications assets on exclusive or shared-tenant basis, and dark fiber network. The Uniti Fiber segment includes the operation of infrastructure solutions, cell site backhauls, and dark fiber. The Corporate segment consists of office and shared service functions. The company was founded in February 2014 and is headquartered in Little Rock, AR.

About NETSTREIT

NETSTREIT Corp. is an internally managed real estate investment trust (REIT) based in Dallas, Texas that specializes in acquiring single-tenant net lease retail properties nationwide. The growing portfolio consists of high-quality properties leased to e-commerce resistant tenants with healthy balance sheets. Led by a management team of seasoned commercial real estate executives, NETSTREIT’s strategy is to create the highest quality net lease retail portfolio in the country with the goal of generating consistent cash flows and dividends for its investors.