Contrasting Alpine Income Property Trust (NYSE:PINE) & Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR)

Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR) and Alpine Income Property Trust (NYSE:PINE) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends and institutional ownership.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Whitestone REIT and Alpine Income Property Trust”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Whitestone REIT	$160.86 million	5.29	$49.93 million	$0.95	17.43
Alpine Income Property Trust	$60.53 million	4.58	-$2.66 million	($0.23)	-79.89

Whitestone REIT has higher revenue and earnings than Alpine Income Property Trust. Alpine Income Property Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Whitestone REIT, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Whitestone REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.57 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Alpine Income Property Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.5%. Whitestone REIT pays out 60.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Alpine Income Property Trust pays out -521.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Whitestone REIT has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years and Alpine Income Property Trust has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Alpine Income Property Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Whitestone REIT and Alpine Income Property Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Whitestone REIT	0	1	6	1	3.00
Alpine Income Property Trust	0	3	4	3	3.00

Whitestone REIT currently has a consensus target price of $16.80, suggesting a potential upside of 1.47%. Alpine Income Property Trust has a consensus target price of $20.21, suggesting a potential upside of 10.01%. Given Alpine Income Property Trust’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Alpine Income Property Trust is more favorable than Whitestone REIT.

Profitability

This table compares Whitestone REIT and Alpine Income Property Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Whitestone REIT	31.04%	11.23%	4.34%
Alpine Income Property Trust	-4.39%	-1.00%	-0.41%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

69.5% of Whitestone REIT shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.5% of Alpine Income Property Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 3.2% of Whitestone REIT shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Alpine Income Property Trust shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Whitestone REIT has a beta of 0.71, suggesting that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alpine Income Property Trust has a beta of 0.58, suggesting that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Whitestone REIT beats Alpine Income Property Trust on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Whitestone REIT

Whitestone REIT (NYSE: WSR) is a community-centered real estate investment trust (REIT) that acquires, owns, operates, and develops open-air, retail centers located in some of the fastest growing markets in the country: Phoenix, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. Our centers are convenience focused: merchandised with a mix of service-oriented tenants providing food (restaurants and grocers), self-care (health and fitness), services (financial and logistics), education and entertainment to the surrounding communities. The Company believes its strong community connections and deep tenant relationships are key to the success of its current centers and its acquisition strategy.

About Alpine Income Property Trust

Alpine Income Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE: PINE) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that seeks to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns and dependable cash dividends by investing in, owning and operating a portfolio of single tenant net leased properties that are predominately leased to high-quality publicly traded and credit-rated tenants.