Comparing Safehold (NYSE:SAFE) & Four Corners Property Trust (NYSE:FCPT)

Safehold (NYSE:SAFE) and Four Corners Property Trust (NYSE:FCPT) are both real estate companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Safehold and Four Corners Property Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Safehold	1	6	2	0	2.11
Four Corners Property Trust	0	5	5	0	2.50

Safehold presently has a consensus target price of $17.17, suggesting a potential upside of 14.83%. Four Corners Property Trust has a consensus target price of $27.78, suggesting a potential upside of 10.89%. Given Safehold’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Safehold is more favorable than Four Corners Property Trust.

Volatility and Risk

Safehold has a beta of 1.75, suggesting that its stock price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Four Corners Property Trust has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Safehold and Four Corners Property Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Safehold	27.70%	4.76%	1.62%
Four Corners Property Trust	38.70%	7.35%	4.05%

Dividends

Safehold pays an annual dividend of $0.71 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Four Corners Property Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.46 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.8%. Safehold pays out 43.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Four Corners Property Trust 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. Safehold has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Four Corners Property Trust has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Four Corners Property Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Safehold and Four Corners Property Trust”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Safehold	$385.55 million	2.75	$114.47 million	$1.62	9.23
Four Corners Property Trust	$306.40 million	8.97	$112.36 million	$1.11	22.57

Safehold has higher revenue and earnings than Four Corners Property Trust. Safehold is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Four Corners Property Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

70.4% of Safehold shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.7% of Four Corners Property Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 3.8% of Safehold shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Four Corners Property Trust shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Four Corners Property Trust beats Safehold on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Safehold

Safehold Inc. (NYSE: SAFE) is revolutionizing real estate ownership by providing a new and better way for owners to unlock the value of the land beneath their buildings. Having created the modern ground lease industry in 2017, Safehold continues to help owners of high quality multifamily, office, industrial, hospitality, student housing, life science and mixed-use properties generate higher returns with less risk. The Company, which is taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT), seeks to deliver safe, growing income and long-term capital appreciation to its shareholders.

About Four Corners Property Trust

Four Corners Property Trust, Inc. engages in the owning, acquisition, and leasing of properties for use in the restaurant and food-service related industries. It operates through the Real Estate Operations and Restaurant Operations segments. The Real Estate Operations segment consists of rental revenues generated by leasing restaurant properties. The Restaurant Operations segment includes the Kerrow Restaurant operating business. The company was founded on July 2, 2015 and is headquartered in Mill Valley, CA.