Office Properties Income Trust (NASDAQ:OPI) & Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) Critical Review

Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) and Office Properties Income Trust (NASDAQ:OPI) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Essex Property Trust and Office Properties Income Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Essex Property Trust	30.03%	10.00%	4.36%
Office Properties Income Trust	-62.99%	-25.56%	-8.02%

Volatility & Risk

Essex Property Trust has a beta of 0.7, indicating that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Office Properties Income Trust has a beta of 1.71, indicating that its stock price is 71% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Essex Property Trust and Office Properties Income Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Essex Property Trust	1	10	9	0	2.40
Office Properties Income Trust	1	0	0	0	1.00

Essex Property Trust presently has a consensus price target of $292.08, suggesting a potential downside of 1.94%. Given Essex Property Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Essex Property Trust is more favorable than Office Properties Income Trust.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

96.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.4% of Office Properties Income Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Office Properties Income Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Essex Property Trust pays an annual dividend of $10.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Office Properties Income Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Essex Property Trust pays out 116.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Essex Property Trust has raised its dividend for 31 consecutive years. Essex Property Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Essex Property Trust and Office Properties Income Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Essex Property Trust	$1.89 billion	10.14	$669.67 million	$8.90	33.47
Office Properties Income Trust	$466.97 million	2.63	-$136.11 million	N/A	N/A

Essex Property Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Office Properties Income Trust.

Summary

Essex Property Trust beats Office Properties Income Trust on 14 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Essex Property Trust

Essex Property Trust, Inc., an S&P 500 company, is a fully integrated real estate investment trust (REIT) that acquires, develops, redevelops, and manages multifamily residential properties in selected West Coast markets. Essex currently has ownership interests in 252 apartment communities comprising approximately 62,000 apartment homes with an additional property in active development.

About Office Properties Income Trust

Office Properties Income Trust is a real estate investment trust. It owns, operates, and leases office buildings to single tenants and multi-tenant buildings. The company was founded on February 17, 2009 and is headquartered in Newton, MA.