Contrasting Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust (NASDAQ:WHLR) & American Tower (NYSE:AMT)

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) and Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust (NASDAQ:WHLR) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for American Tower and Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Tower	0	2	11	1	2.93
Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust	0	0	0	0	N/A

American Tower presently has a consensus price target of $234.00, suggesting a potential downside of 0.95%. Given American Tower’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe American Tower is more favorable than Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust.

Risk & Volatility

American Tower has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust has a beta of 1.53, meaning that its stock price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares American Tower and Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Tower	$11.34 billion	9.73	$1.48 billion	$4.42	53.45
Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust	$103.61 million	0.07	-$4.69 million	($4,458.03)	0.00

American Tower has higher revenue and earnings than Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust. Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Tower, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares American Tower and Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Tower	21.95%	23.06%	3.77%
Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust	-10.98%	N/A	-1.70%

Dividends

American Tower pays an annual dividend of $6.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.8%. American Tower pays out 146.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust pays out 0.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

92.7% of American Tower shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 35.3% of Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of American Tower shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 40.6% of Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

American Tower beats Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About American Tower

American Tower, one of the largest global REITs, is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a portfolio of over 224,000 communications sites and a highly interconnected footprint of U.S. data center facilities.

About Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust

Headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc. is a fully integrated, self-managed commercial real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on owning and operating income-producing retail properties with a primary focus on grocery-anchored centers.