New York Mortgage Trust (NASDAQ:NYMT) and Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) Critical Review

Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) and New York Mortgage Trust (NASDAQ:NYMT) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, earnings, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Equinix and New York Mortgage Trust’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Equinix	$8.19 billion	8.93	$969.18 million	$10.31	74.92
New York Mortgage Trust	$273.39 million	2.06	-$48.67 million	($1.85)	-3.34

Equinix has higher revenue and earnings than New York Mortgage Trust. New York Mortgage Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Equinix, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Equinix and New York Mortgage Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Equinix	0	6	7	1	2.64
New York Mortgage Trust	0	2	1	0	2.33

Equinix presently has a consensus price target of $870.44, suggesting a potential upside of 12.69%. New York Mortgage Trust has a consensus price target of $8.00, suggesting a potential upside of 29.45%. Given New York Mortgage Trust’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe New York Mortgage Trust is more favorable than Equinix.

Dividends

Equinix pays an annual dividend of $17.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. New York Mortgage Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.9%. Equinix pays out 165.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. New York Mortgage Trust pays out -43.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Equinix has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years. New York Mortgage Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Equinix and New York Mortgage Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Equinix	11.84%	8.01%	3.05%
New York Mortgage Trust	-44.65%	-2.60%	-0.40%

Volatility and Risk

Equinix has a beta of 0.62, suggesting that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, New York Mortgage Trust has a beta of 1.91, suggesting that its stock price is 91% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

94.9% of Equinix shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.9% of New York Mortgage Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Equinix shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of New York Mortgage Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Equinix beats New York Mortgage Trust on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Equinix

Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world's digital infrastructure company . Digital leaders harness Equinix's trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organizations to access all the right places, partners and possibilities to scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value, while supporting their sustainability goals.

About New York Mortgage Trust

New York Mortgage Trust, Inc. acquires, invests in, finances, and manages mortgage-related single-family and multi-family residential assets in the United States. Its targeted investments include residential loans, including business purpose loans; structured multi-family property investments, such as preferred equity in, and mezzanine loans to owners of multi-family properties; non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS); agency RMBS; commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS); single-family rental properties; and other mortgage, residential housing, and credit-related assets. The company also qualifies as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes. It generally would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. New York Mortgage Trust, Inc. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in New York, New York.