Reviewing Office Properties Income Trust (NASDAQ:OPI) and Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW)

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

Dividends

Office Properties Income Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Highwoods Properties pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.4%. Highwoods Properties pays out 131.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Office Properties Income Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A
Highwoods Properties	20.74%	7.06%	2.72%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Office Properties Income Trust and Highwoods Properties, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Office Properties Income Trust	1	0	0	1	2.50
Highwoods Properties	0	7	1	0	2.12

Office Properties Income Trust currently has a consensus target price of $27.00, suggesting a potential upside of 51.77%. Highwoods Properties has a consensus target price of $31.67, suggesting a potential upside of 1.67%. Given Office Properties Income Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Office Properties Income Trust is more favorable than Highwoods Properties.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Office Properties Income Trust and Highwoods Properties”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Office Properties Income Trust	$466.97 million	2.82	N/A	N/A	N/A
Highwoods Properties	$806.11 million	4.26	$159.61 million	$1.52	20.49

Highwoods Properties has higher revenue and earnings than Office Properties Income Trust.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

64.4% of Office Properties Income Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.3% of Highwoods Properties shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Office Properties Income Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Highwoods Properties shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Highwoods Properties beats Office Properties Income Trust on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Highwoods Properties

Highwoods Properties, Inc., headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded (NYSE:HIW), fully-integrated office real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa. Highwoods is in the work-placemaking business. We believe that by creating environments and experiences where the best and brightest can achieve together what they cannot apart, we can deliver greater value to our customers, their teammates and, in turn, our stakeholders.