Reviewing Plymouth Industrial REIT (NYSE:PLYM) and City Office REIT (NYSE:CIO)

City Office REIT (NYSE:CIO) and Plymouth Industrial REIT (NYSE:PLYM) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, risk and dividends.

Dividends

City Office REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.0%. Plymouth Industrial REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. City Office REIT pays out -142.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Plymouth Industrial REIT pays out 223.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. City Office REIT is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

City Office REIT has a beta of 1.95, meaning that its share price is 95% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Plymouth Industrial REIT has a beta of 1.36, meaning that its share price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

67.5% of City Office REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.7% of Plymouth Industrial REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.9% of City Office REIT shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Plymouth Industrial REIT shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
City Office REIT	-4.02%	-1.07%	-0.47%
Plymouth Industrial REIT	13.45%	5.47%	1.86%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares City Office REIT and Plymouth Industrial REIT”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
City Office REIT	$175.37 million	1.32	-$2.68 million	($0.28)	-20.54
Plymouth Industrial REIT	$199.85 million	4.92	$13.66 million	$0.43	50.33

Plymouth Industrial REIT has higher revenue and earnings than City Office REIT. City Office 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for City Office REIT and Plymouth Industrial REIT, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
City Office REIT	0	0	0	0	N/A
Plymouth Industrial REIT	1	3	3	0	2.29

Plymouth Industrial REIT has a consensus target price of $25.57, indicating a potential upside of 18.17%. Given Plymouth Industrial REIT’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Plymouth Industrial REIT is more favorable than City Office REIT.

Summary

Plymouth Industrial REIT beats City Office REIT on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About City Office REIT

City Office REIT is an internally-managed real estate company focused on acquiring, owning and operating high-quality office properties located predominantly in Sun Belt markets. City Office currently owns or has a controlling interest in 5.7 million square feet of office properties. The Company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes.

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.