Contrasting Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE:ESRT) & Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT)

Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE:ESRT) and Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Dividends

Empire State Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Uniti Group pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 22.6%. Empire State Realty Trust pays out 46.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Uniti Group pays out 1,000.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Empire State Realty Trust and Uniti Group’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Empire State Realty Trust	$739.57 million	2.05	$53.24 million	$0.30	30.65
Uniti Group	$1.15 billion	0.55	-$81.71 million	$0.06	44.17

Empire State Realty Trust has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Uniti Group. Empire State Realty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Uniti Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Empire State Realty Trust and Uniti Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Empire State Realty Trust	1	2	0	0	1.67
Uniti Group	1	1	2	0	2.25

Empire State Realty Trust currently has a consensus target price of $8.33, indicating a potential downside of 9.37%. Uniti Group has a consensus target price of $6.25, indicating a potential upside of 135.85%. Given Uniti Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Uniti Group is more favorable than Empire State Realty Trust.

Profitability

This table compares Empire State Realty Trust and Uniti Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Empire State Realty Trust	6.51%	2.85%	1.17%
Uniti Group	1.43%	-0.68%	0.33%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

67.1% of Empire State Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.5% of Uniti Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.0% of Empire State Realty Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Uniti Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Empire State Realty Trust has a beta of 1.36, indicating that its stock price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Uniti Group has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Empire State Realty Trust beats Uniti Group on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Empire State Realty Trust

Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: ESRT) is a NYC-focused REIT that owns and operates a portfolio of modernized, amenitized, and well-located office, retail, and multifamily assets. The company is the recognized leader in energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality. ESRT's flagship Empire State Building – the "World's Most Famous Building" – includes its Observatory, Tripadvisor's 2023 Travelers' Choice Awards: Best of the Best the #1 attraction in the US for two consecutive years. As of September 30, 2023, ESRT's portfolio is comprised of approximately 8.6 million rentable square feet of office space, 0.7 million rentable square feet of retail space and 727 residential units across three multifamily properties.

About Uniti Group

Uniti, an internally managed real estate investment trust, is engaged in the acquisition and construction of mission critical communications infrastructure, and is a leading provider of fiber and other wireless solutions for the communications industry. As of December 31, 2023, Uniti owns approximately 140,000 fiber route miles, 8.5 million fiber strand miles, and other communications real estate throughout the United States.