Reviewing COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) & Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Sep 17th, 2024

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP – Get Free Report) and Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT – Get Free Report) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, risk, institutional ownership and profitability.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares COPT Defense Properties and Ashford Hospitality Trust”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
COPT Defense Properties	$684.98 million	4.95	-$73.47 million	($1.08)	-27.87
Ashford Hospitality Trust	$1.28 billion	0.03	-$178.49 million	($3.17)	-0.25

COPT Defense Properties has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Ashford Hospitality Trust. COPT Defense Properties is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ashford Hospitality Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

COPT Defense Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.18 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Ashford Hospitality Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 29.7%. COPT Defense Properties pays out -109.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ashford Hospitality Trust pays out -7.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

41.0% of Ashford Hospitality Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of COPT Defense Properties shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Ashford Hospitality 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.

Volatility and Risk

COPT Defense Properties has a beta of 0.99, suggesting that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ashford Hospitality Trust has a beta of 2.35, suggesting that its share price is 135% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for COPT Defense Properties and Ashford Hospitality Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
COPT Defense Properties	0	3	5	0	2.63
Ashford Hospitality Trust	0	1	0	0	2.00

COPT Defense Properties currently has a consensus target price of $30.00, indicating a potential downside of 0.33%. Ashford Hospitality Trust has a consensus target price of $2.50, indicating a potential upside of 209.48%. Given Ashford Hospitality Trust’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ashford Hospitality Trust is more favorable than COPT Defense Properties.

Profitability

This table compares COPT Defense Properties and Ashford Hospitality Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
COPT Defense Properties	-15.75%	-7.52%	-2.71%
Ashford Hospitality Trust	2.25%	-10.52%	0.82%

Summary

Ashford Hospitality Trust beats COPT Defense Properties on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About COPT Defense Properties

(Get Free Report)

COPT Defense, an S&P MidCap 400 Company, is a self-managed REIT focused on owning, operating and developing properties in locations proximate to, or sometimes containing, key U.S. Government (USG) defense installations and missions (referred to as its Defense/IT Portfolio). The Company's tenants include the USG and their defense contractors, who are primarily engaged in priority national security activities, and who generally require mission-critical and high security property enhancements. As of December 31, 2023, the Company's Defense/IT Portfolio of 190 properties, including 24 owned through unconsolidated joint ventures, encompassed 21.7 million square feet and was 97.2% leased.

About Ashford Hospitality Trust