Contrasting SL Green Realty (NYSE:SLG) & OUTFRONT Media (NYSE:OUT)

OUTFRONT Media (NYSE:OUT) and SL Green Realty (NYSE:SLG) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares OUTFRONT Media and SL Green Realty”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
OUTFRONT Media	$1.83 billion	3.16	$147.00 million	$1.05	31.33
SL Green Realty	$1.00 billion	3.72	-$88.28 million	($2.51)	-20.81

OUTFRONT Media has higher revenue and earnings than SL Green Realty. SL Green Realty is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than OUTFRONT Media, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

90.0% of SL Green Realty shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of OUTFRONT Media shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.0% of SL Green Realty shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for OUTFRONT Media and SL Green Realty, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
OUTFRONT Media	0	1	6	0	2.86
SL Green Realty	2	9	8	0	2.32

OUTFRONT Media presently has a consensus target price of $30.71, indicating a potential downside of 6.62%. SL Green Realty has a consensus target price of $50.90, indicating a potential downside of 2.54%. Given SL Green Realty’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe SL Green Realty is more favorable than OUTFRONT Media.

Profitability

This table compares OUTFRONT Media and SL Green Realty’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
OUTFRONT Media	9.98%	30.36%	3.57%
SL Green Realty	-15.77%	-4.06%	-1.42%

Dividends

OUTFRONT Media pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. SL Green Realty pays an annual dividend of $2.47 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. OUTFRONT Media pays out 114.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. SL Green Realty pays out -98.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SL Green Realty has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. SL Green Realty is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk & Volatility

OUTFRONT Media has a beta of 1.48, indicating that its stock price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SL Green Realty has a beta of 1.58, indicating that its stock price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

SL Green Realty beats OUTFRONT Media on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About OUTFRONT Media

OUTFRONT Media, Inc. leases advertising space on out-of-home advertising structures and sites. Its inventory consists of billboard displays, which are primarily located on the most heavily traveled highways & roadways, and transit advertising displays operated under exclusive multi-year contracts with municipalities in large cities across the U.S. and Canada. It operates through the U.S. Media and other segments. The U.S. Media segment includes U.S. Billboard and Transit. The company was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

About SL Green Realty

3SL Green Realty Corp., Manhattan’s largest office landlord, is a fully integrated real estate investment trust, or REIT, that is focused primarily on acquiring, managing and maximizing value of Manhattan commercial properties. As of June 30, 2022, SL Green held interests in 64 buildings totaling 34.4 million square feet. This included ownership interests in 26.3 million square feet of Manhattan buildings and 7.2 million square feet securing debt and preferred equity investments.