Reviewing Apple Hospitality REIT (NYSE:APLE) and American Tower (NYSE:AMT)

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) and Apple Hospitality REIT (NYSE:APLE) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares American Tower and Apple Hospitality REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Tower	28.11%	28.79%	4.69%
Apple Hospitality REIT	12.37%	5.46%	3.55%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for American Tower and Apple Hospitality REIT, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Tower	0	6	12	2	2.80
Apple Hospitality REIT	0	4	2	0	2.33

American Tower currently has a consensus price target of $226.67, indicating a potential upside of 28.98%. Apple Hospitality REIT has a consensus price target of $12.70, indicating a potential upside of 5.61%. Given American Tower’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe American Tower is more favorable than Apple Hospitality REIT.

Dividends

American Tower pays an annual dividend of $6.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Apple Hospitality REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.0%. American Tower pays out 108.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Apple Hospitality REIT pays out 131.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. American Tower has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Risk and Volatility

American Tower has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Apple Hospitality REIT has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares American Tower and Apple Hospitality REIT”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Tower	$10.13 billion	8.12	$2.26 billion	$6.26	28.07
Apple Hospitality REIT	$1.43 billion	1.99	$214.06 million	$0.73	16.47

American Tower has higher revenue and earnings than Apple Hospitality REIT. Apple Hospitality REIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Tower, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.7% of American Tower shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.7% of Apple Hospitality REIT shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of American Tower shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.1% of Apple Hospitality REIT shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

American Tower beats Apple Hospitality REIT on 16 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About American Tower

American Tower, one of the largest global REITs, is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a portfolio of over 224,000 communications sites and a highly interconnected footprint of U.S. data center facilities.

About Apple Hospitality REIT

Apple Hospitality REIT, Inc. (NYSE: APLE) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns one of the largest and most diverse portfolios of upscale, rooms-focused hotels in the United States. Apple Hospitality's portfolio consists of 223 hotels with more than 29,400 guest rooms located in 87 markets throughout 37 states as well as one property leased to third parties. Concentrated with industry-leading brands, the Company's hotel portfolio consists of 99 Marriott-branded hotels, 119 Hilton-branded hotels and five Hyatt-branded hotels.