Analyzing American Tower (NYSE:AMT) and Bimini Capital Management (OTCMKTS:BMNM)

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) and Bimini Capital Management (OTCMKTS:BMNM) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

American Tower has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bimini Capital Management has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares American Tower and Bimini Capital Management”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Tower	$11.34 billion	9.48	$1.48 billion	$4.42	52.11
Bimini Capital Management	$13.60 million	0.81	-$3.98 million	($0.47)	-2.34

American Tower has higher revenue and earnings than Bimini Capital Management. Bimini Capital Management is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Tower, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.7% of American Tower shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of American Tower shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 42.7% of Bimini Capital Management shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares American Tower and Bimini Capital Management’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%
Bimini Capital Management	-45.47%	-56.88%	-4.35%

Dividends

American Tower pays an annual dividend of $6.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Bimini Capital Management pays an annual dividend of $0.13 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.8%. 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. Bimini Capital Management pays out -27.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Bimini Capital Management is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for American Tower and Bimini Capital Management, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Tower	0	2	11	1	2.93
Bimini Capital Management	0	0	0	0	N/A

American Tower currently has a consensus target price of $234.00, indicating a potential upside of 1.60%. Given American Tower’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe American Tower is more favorable than Bimini Capital Management.

Summary

American Tower beats Bimini Capital Management 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 Bimini Capital Management

Bimini Capital Management, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty finance company in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Asset Management and Investment Portfolio. The Asset Management segment includes investment advisory services by Bimini Advisors to Orchid Island Capital, Inc. and Royal Palm Capital, LLC. The Investment Portfolio segment engages in investment activities conducted by Royal Palm Capital, LLC. It invests in residential mortgage-backed securities. The company was formerly known as Opteum Inc. and changed its name to Bimini Capital Management, Inc. in September 2007. Bimini Capital Management, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is based in Vero Beach, Florida.