Financial Survey: COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) & Global Medical REIT (NYSE:XRN)

Global Medical REIT (NYSE:XRN) and COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Global Medical REIT and COPT Defense Properties’ 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%
COPT Defense Properties	20.10%	10.02%	3.51%

Volatility and Risk

Global Medical REIT has a beta of 1.1, meaning that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, COPT Defense Properties has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

57.5% of Global Medical REIT shares are held by institutional investors. 8.9% of Global Medical REIT shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of COPT Defense Properties shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Global Medical REIT and COPT Defense Properties, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Medical REIT	0	5	2	1	2.50
COPT Defense Properties	0	3	5	0	2.62

Global Medical REIT presently has a consensus price target of $40.00, indicating a potential upside of 6.45%. COPT Defense Properties has a consensus price target of $35.38, indicating a potential downside of 3.84%. Given Global Medical REIT’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Global Medical REIT is more favorable than COPT Defense Properties.

Dividends

Global Medical REIT pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. COPT Defense Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Global Medical REIT pays out -173.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. COPT Defense Properties pays out 92.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Global Medical REIT is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Global Medical REIT and COPT Defense Properties”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Medical REIT	$148.21 million	3.35	-$5.84 million	($1.11)	-33.85
COPT Defense Properties	$763.92 million	5.46	$152.32 million	$1.38	26.66

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

Summary

COPT Defense Properties beats Global Medical REIT on 10 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 COPT Defense Properties

COPT Defense Properties is a real estate investment trust. It acquires, develops, manages, sells, and leases out office properties and data centers. The firm operates through the following segments: Defense/Information Technology Locations, Regional Office, Wholesale Data Center, and Other. The company was founded on January 22,1988 and is headquartered in Columbia, MD.