Comparing National Healthcare Properties (NASDAQ:NHP) & Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT)

Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT) and National Healthcare Properties (NASDAQ:NHP) are both real estate companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Medical Properties Trust and National Healthcare Properties, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medical Properties Trust	1	1	0	0	1.50
National Healthcare Properties	0	5	5	0	2.50

Medical Properties Trust currently has a consensus price target of $4.50, indicating a potential downside of 2.60%. National Healthcare Properties has a consensus price target of $17.13, indicating a potential upside of 16.81%. Given National Healthcare Properties’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe National Healthcare Properties is more favorable than Medical Properties Trust.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and National Healthcare Properties”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Medical Properties Trust	$972.02 million	2.84	-$277.05 million	($0.21)	-22.00
National Healthcare Properties	$342.12 million	3.12	N/A	N/A	N/A

National Healthcare Properties has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Medical Properties Trust.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

71.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.9% of National Healthcare Properties shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of National Healthcare Properties shares are owned 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.

Profitability

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and National Healthcare Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medical Properties Trust	-12.59%	-2.70%	-0.84%
National Healthcare Properties	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

National Healthcare Properties beats Medical Properties Trust on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Medical Properties Trust

Medical Properties Trust, Inc. is a self-advised real estate investment trust formed to capitalize on the changing trends in healthcare delivery by acquiring and developing net-leased healthcare facilities. MPT’s financing model allows hospitals and other healthcare facilities to unlock the value of their underlying real estate in order to fund facility improvements, technology upgrades, staff additions and new construction. Facilities include acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, and other medical and surgical facilities.