Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) and City Office REIT (NYSE:CIO) Head-To-Head Review

City Office REIT (NYSE:CIO) and Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Volatility and Risk

City Office REIT has a beta of 1.59, meaning that its share price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Uniti Group has a beta of 1.45, meaning that its share price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares City Office REIT and Uniti Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
City Office REIT	-74.21%	-21.71%	-9.19%
Uniti Group	97.46%	-2.52%	0.59%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for City Office REIT and Uniti Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
City Office REIT	1	1	0	0	1.50
Uniti Group	0	5	1	1	2.43

Uniti Group has a consensus price target of $6.86, suggesting a potential downside of 10.79%. Given Uniti Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Uniti Group is more favorable than City Office REIT.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

67.5% of City Office REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.5% of Uniti Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.3% of City Office REIT shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of Uniti Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares City Office REIT and Uniti Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
City Office REIT	$163.80 million	1.72	-$17.68 million	($3.17)	-2.21
Uniti Group	$1.17 billion	0.98	$93.41 million	$5.11	1.50

Uniti Group has higher revenue and earnings than City Office REIT. City Office REIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Uniti Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Uniti Group beats City Office REIT on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About City Office REIT

City Office REIT is an internally-managed real estate company focused on acquiring, owning and operating high-quality office properties located predominantly in Sun Belt markets. City Office currently owns or has a controlling interest in 5.7 million square feet of office properties. The Company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes.

About Uniti Group

Uniti Group, Inc. is a real estate investment trust company, which engages in the acquisition, construction, and leasing of properties. It operates through the following business segments: Uniti Leasing, Uniti Fiber, and Corporate. The Uniti Leasing segment involves mission-critical communications assets on exclusive or shared-tenant basis, and dark fiber network. The Uniti Fiber segment includes the operation of infrastructure solutions, cell site backhauls, and dark fiber. The Corporate segment consists of office and shared service functions. The company was founded in February 2014 and is headquartered in Little Rock, AR.