Analyzing Net Lease Office Properties (NYSE:NLOP) & CoreCivic (NYSE:CXW)

CoreCivic (NYSE:CXW) and Net Lease Office Properties (NYSE:NLOP) 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, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and dividends.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares CoreCivic and Net Lease Office Properties”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CoreCivic	$2.21 billion	0.86	$116.50 million	$1.08	17.98
Net Lease Office Properties	$118.92 million	1.73	-$145.26 million	($9.80)	-1.42

CoreCivic has higher revenue and earnings than Net Lease Office Properties. Net Lease Office Properties is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CoreCivic, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for CoreCivic and Net Lease Office Properties, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CoreCivic	0	1	2	0	2.67
Net Lease Office Properties	1	0	0	0	1.00

CoreCivic presently has a consensus target price of $34.00, suggesting a potential upside of 75.10%. Given CoreCivic’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe CoreCivic is more favorable than Net Lease Office Properties.

Risk and Volatility

CoreCivic has a beta of 0.72, suggesting that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Net Lease Office Properties has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares CoreCivic and Net Lease Office Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CoreCivic	5.27%	8.17%	3.83%
Net Lease Office Properties	-122.16%	-31.89%	-23.92%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

85.1% of CoreCivic shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.3% of Net Lease Office Properties shares are held by institutional investors. 2.3% of CoreCivic shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Net Lease Office Properties shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

CoreCivic beats Net Lease Office Properties on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CoreCivic

CoreCivic, Inc. owns and operates partnership correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities in the United States. It operates through three segments: CoreCivic Safety, CoreCivic Community, and CoreCivic Properties. The company provides a range of solutions to government partners that serve the public good through corrections and detention management, a network of residential reentry centers to help address America’s recidivism crisis, and government real estate solutions. Its correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities offer rehabilitation and educational programs, including basic education, faith-based services, life skills and employment training, and substance abuse treatment. The company owns and operates correctional and detention facilities, residential reentry centers, and properties for lease. CoreCivic, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in Brentwood, Tennessee.

About Net Lease Office Properties

Net Lease Office Properties (NYSE: NLOP) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust with a portfolio of 59 high-quality office properties, totaling approximately 8.7 million leasable square feet primarily leased to corporate tenants on a single-tenant net lease basis. The vast majority of the office properties owned by NLOP are located in the U.S., with the balance in Europe. The portfolio consists of 62 corporate tenants operating in a variety of industries, generating annualized based rent (ABR) of approximately $145 million. NLOP's business plan is to focus on realizing value for its shareholders primarily through strategic asset management and disposition of its property portfolio over time. Given WPC's extensive knowledge of the portfolio, NLOP is externally managed and advised by wholly owned affiliates of WPC to successfully execute on its business strategy. Over the course of its 50-year history, WPC has developed significant expertise in the single-tenant office real estate sector, including the operation, leasing, acquisition and development of assets through many market cycles, and has a proven track record of execution.