Head to Head Review: Global Medical REIT (NYSE:XRN) & Chatham Lodging Trust (NYSE:CLDT)

Global Medical REIT (NYSE:XRN) and Chatham Lodging Trust (NYSE:CLDT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

57.5% of Global Medical REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.4% of Chatham Lodging Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.9% of Global Medical REIT shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.1% of Chatham Lodging Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Global Medical REIT and Chatham Lodging Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Global Medical REIT	-6.06%	-2.19%	-0.73%
Chatham Lodging Trust	3.14%	1.18%	0.77%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Global Medical REIT and Chatham Lodging Trust”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Medical REIT	$148.21 million	3.23	-$5.84 million	($1.11)	-32.56
Chatham Lodging Trust	$295.08 million	1.71	$15.05 million	$0.02	541.60

Chatham Lodging Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Global Medical REIT. Global Medical REIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Chatham Lodging Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Global Medical REIT has a beta of 1.11, meaning that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chatham Lodging Trust has a beta of 1.05, meaning that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Global Medical REIT pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.3%. Chatham Lodging Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Global Medical REIT pays out -270.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Chatham Lodging Trust pays out 2,000.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Chatham Lodging Trust has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Global Medical REIT is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Global Medical REIT and Chatham Lodging Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Medical REIT	1	3	2	1	2.43
Chatham Lodging Trust	1	1	2	0	2.25

Global Medical REIT currently has a consensus target price of $40.00, indicating a potential upside of 10.67%. Chatham Lodging Trust has a consensus target price of $11.00, indicating a potential upside of 1.55%. Given Global Medical REIT’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Global Medical REIT is more favorable than Chatham Lodging Trust.

Summary

Chatham Lodging Trust beats Global Medical REIT on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Global Medical REIT

Global Medical REIT Inc. (GMRE) is a net-lease medical office real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and acquires healthcare facilities and leases those facilities to physician groups and regional and national healthcare systems.

About Chatham Lodging Trust

Chatham Lodging Trust is a self-advised, publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) focused primarily on investing in upscale, extended-stay hotels and premium-branded, select-service hotels. The company owns 39 hotels totaling 5,915 rooms/suites in 16 states and the District of Columbia.