Comparing Apple Hospitality REIT (NYSE:APLE) & Plymouth Industrial REIT (NYSE:PLYM)

Plymouth Industrial REIT (NYSE:PLYM) and Apple Hospitality REIT (NYSE:APLE) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Plymouth Industrial REIT and Apple Hospitality REIT, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Plymouth Industrial REIT	1	4	4	0	2.33
Apple Hospitality REIT	0	2	2	0	2.50

Plymouth Industrial REIT currently has a consensus target price of $24.33, indicating a potential upside of 43.47%. Apple Hospitality REIT has a consensus target price of $16.50, indicating a potential upside of 13.48%. Given Plymouth Industrial REIT’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Plymouth Industrial REIT is more favorable than Apple Hospitality REIT.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.7% of Plymouth Industrial REIT shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.7% of Apple Hospitality REIT shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Plymouth Industrial REIT shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.8% of Apple Hospitality REIT shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Plymouth Industrial REIT has a beta of 1.34, meaning that its share price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Apple Hospitality REIT has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Plymouth Industrial REIT and Apple Hospitality REIT”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Plymouth Industrial REIT	$201.57 million	3.82	$13.66 million	$0.02	848.00
Apple Hospitality REIT	$1.41 billion	2.47	$177.49 million	$0.85	17.11

Apple Hospitality REIT has higher revenue and earnings than Plymouth Industrial REIT. Apple Hospitality REIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Plymouth Industrial REIT, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Plymouth Industrial REIT and Apple Hospitality REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Plymouth Industrial REIT	0.46%	0.20%	0.06%
Apple Hospitality REIT	14.53%	6.17%	4.09%

Dividends

Plymouth Industrial REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.7%. Apple Hospitality REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.6%. Plymouth Industrial REIT pays out 4,800.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Apple Hospitality REIT pays out 112.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Apple Hospitality REIT is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Apple Hospitality REIT beats Plymouth Industrial REIT on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Plymouth Industrial REIT

Plymouth Industrial REIT, Inc. (NYSE: PLYM) is a full service, vertically integrated real estate investment company focused on the acquisition, ownership and management of single and multi-tenant industrial properties. Our mission is to provide tenants with cost effective space that is functional, flexible and safe.

About Apple Hospitality REIT

Apple Hospitality REIT, Inc. (NYSE: APLE) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns one of the largest and most diverse portfolios of upscale, rooms-focused hotels in the United States. Apple Hospitality's portfolio consists of 223 hotels with more than 29,400 guest rooms located in 87 markets throughout 37 states as well as one property leased to third parties. Concentrated with industry-leading brands, the Company's hotel portfolio consists of 99 Marriott-branded hotels, 119 Hilton-branded hotels and five Hyatt-branded hotels.