Reviewing National Health Investors (NYSE:NHI) & Medalist Diversified REIT (NASDAQ:MDRR)

National Health Investors (NYSE:NHI) and Medalist Diversified REIT (NASDAQ:MDRR) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

62.5% of National Health Investors shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 17.4% of Medalist Diversified REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.3% of National Health Investors shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 56.1% of Medalist Diversified REIT shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for National Health Investors and Medalist Diversified REIT, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
National Health Investors	0	2	2	0	2.50
Medalist Diversified REIT	0	0	0	0	0.00

National Health Investors presently has a consensus price target of $85.50, suggesting a potential upside of 19.67%. Given National Health Investors’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe National Health Investors is more favorable than Medalist Diversified REIT.

Volatility and Risk

National Health Investors has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medalist Diversified REIT has a beta of 0.3, suggesting that its share price is 70% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares National Health Investors and Medalist Diversified REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
National Health Investors	38.53%	10.11%	5.12%
Medalist Diversified REIT	-2.18%	-18.35%	-3.87%

Dividends

National Health Investors pays an annual dividend of $3.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Medalist Diversified REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. National Health Investors pays out 115.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Medalist Diversified REIT pays out -118.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares National Health Investors and Medalist Diversified REIT”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
National Health Investors	$335.18 million	9.74	$135.65 million	$3.12	22.90
Medalist Diversified REIT	$9.74 million	1.77	-$4.57 million	($0.22)	-57.50

National Health Investors has higher revenue and earnings than Medalist Diversified REIT. Medalist Diversified REIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than National Health Investors, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

National Health Investors beats Medalist Diversified REIT on 14 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About National Health Investors

Incorporated in 1991, National Health Investors, Inc. (NYSE:NHI) is a real estate investment trust specializing in sale, leasebacks, joint-ventures, senior housing operating partnerships, and mortgage and mezzanine financing of need-driven and discretionary senior housing and medical investments. NHI's portfolio consists of independent living, assisted living and memory care communities, entrance-fee retirement communities, skilled nursing facilities, and specialty hospitals.

About Medalist Diversified REIT

Medalist Diversified REIT Inc. is a Virginia-based real estate investment trust that specializes in acquiring, owning and managing commercial real estate in the Southeast region of the U.S. The Company's strategy is to focus on commercial real estate which is expected to provide an attractive balance of risk and returns. Medalist utilizes a rigorous, consistent and replicable process for sourcing and conducting due diligence of acquisitions.