Head to Head Survey: Equity Lifestyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) and Sun Communities (NYSE:SUI)

Sun Communities (NYSE:SUI) and Equity Lifestyle Properties (NYSE:ELS) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Sun Communities and Equity Lifestyle Properties, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sun Communities	1	8	5	0	2.29
Equity Lifestyle Properties	0	4	7	1	2.75

Sun Communities presently has a consensus target price of $137.23, indicating a potential upside of 8.38%. Equity Lifestyle Properties has a consensus target price of $70.14, indicating a potential upside of 13.00%. Given Equity Lifestyle Properties’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Equity Lifestyle Properties is more favorable than Sun Communities.

Dividends

Sun Communities pays an annual dividend of $4.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Equity Lifestyle Properties pays an annual dividend of $2.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Sun Communities pays out 52.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Equity Lifestyle Properties pays out 103.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Sun Communities has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years and Equity Lifestyle Properties has raised its dividend for 21 consecutive years. Equity Lifestyle Properties is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk & Volatility

Sun Communities has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Equity Lifestyle Properties has a beta of 0.71, meaning that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Sun Communities and Equity Lifestyle Properties”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sun Communities	$3.22 billion	4.86	$101.80 million	$7.98	15.87
Equity Lifestyle Properties	$1.44 billion	8.36	$367.01 million	$1.99	31.19

Equity Lifestyle Properties has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Sun Communities. Sun Communities is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Equity Lifestyle Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Sun Communities and Equity Lifestyle Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sun Communities	42.58%	-4.51%	-2.19%
Equity Lifestyle Properties	24.97%	20.99%	6.71%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

99.6% of Sun Communities shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.2% of Equity Lifestyle Properties shares are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of Sun Communities shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Equity Lifestyle Properties shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Equity Lifestyle Properties beats Sun Communities on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sun Communities

Established in 1975, Sun Communities, Inc. became a publicly owned corporation in December 1993. The Company is a fully integrated REIT listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol: SUI. As of December 31, 2023, the Company owned, operated, or had an interest in a portfolio of 667 developed MH, RV and Marina properties comprising 179,310 developed sites and approximately 48,030 wet slips and dry storage spaces in the U.S., the UK and Canada.

About Equity Lifestyle Properties

Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the ownership and operation of lifestyle-oriented properties consisting primarily of manufactured home, and recreational vehicle communities. It operates through the following segments: Property Operations and Home Sales and Rentals Operations. The Property Operations segment owns and operates land lease properties. The Home Sales and Rentals Operations segment purchases, sells, and leases homes. The company was founded by James M. Hankins in December 1992 and is headquartered in Chicago, IL.