Financial Analysis: Highlands REIT (HHDS) vs. Its Competitors

Highlands REIT (OTCMKTS:HHDS) is one of 278 publicly-traded companies in the “Real estate investment trusts” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Highlands REIT to related businesses based on the strength of its valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Highlands REIT and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Highlands REIT	0	0	0	0	N/A
Highlands REIT Competitors	3501	12991	13443	329	2.35

As a group, “Real estate investment trusts” companies have a potential upside of 22.80%. Given Highlands REIT’s competitors higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Highlands REIT has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Risk & Volatility

Highlands REIT has a beta of 26.66, suggesting that its share price is 2,566% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Highlands REIT’s competitors have a beta of 1.25, suggesting that their average share price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Highlands REIT and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Highlands REIT	-33.24%	-4.51%	-3.04%
Highlands REIT Competitors	-0.10%	0.22%	1.28%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.0% of Highlands REIT shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.1% of shares of all “Real estate investment trusts” companies are held by institutional investors. 3.7% of Highlands REIT shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.6% of shares of all “Real estate investment trusts” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Highlands REIT and its competitors revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Highlands REIT	$30.98 million	-$10.30 million	-10.00
Highlands REIT Competitors	$1.01 billion	$120.86 million	20.89

Highlands REIT’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Highlands REIT. Highlands REIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Highlands REIT competitors beat Highlands REIT on 9 of the 10 factors compared.

Highlands REIT Company Profile

We are a self-advised and self-administered real estate investment trust (REIT) created to own and manage substantially all of the non-core investment properties previously owned and managed by our former parent, InvenTrust Properties Corp., a Maryland corporation (InvenTrust). On April 28, 2016, we were spun-off from InvenTrust through a pro rata distribution (the Distribution) by InvenTrust of 100% of the outstanding shares of our common stock to holders of InvenTrust's common stock. Prior to or concurrent with the separation, we and InvenTrust engaged in certain reorganization transactions that were designed to consolidate substantially all of InvenTrust's remaining non-core investment properties in Highlands.