Park Hotels & Resorts (NYSE:PK) and Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT) Critical Survey

Park Hotels & Resorts (NYSE:PK) and Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT) are both real estate companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Park Hotels & Resorts and Ashford Hospitality Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Park Hotels & Resorts	-6.41%	-5.23%	-2.04%
Ashford Hospitality Trust	-6.12%	N/A	-2.42%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

92.7% of Park Hotels & Resorts shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.0% of Ashford Hospitality Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.5% of Park Hotels & Resorts shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Ashford Hospitality Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Park Hotels & Resorts has a beta of 1.34, suggesting that its stock price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ashford Hospitality Trust has a beta of 1.74, suggesting that its stock price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Park Hotels & Resorts and Ashford Hospitality Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Park Hotels & Resorts	1	11	2	0	2.07
Ashford Hospitality Trust	1	1	0	0	1.50

Park Hotels & Resorts presently has a consensus price target of $13.92, indicating a potential downside of 13.96%. Given Park Hotels & Resorts’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Park Hotels & Resorts is more favorable than Ashford Hospitality Trust.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Park Hotels & Resorts and Ashford Hospitality Trust”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Park Hotels & Resorts	$2.54 billion	1.28	-$283.00 million	($0.83)	-19.49
Ashford Hospitality Trust	$1.10 billion	0.02	-$179.84 million	($33.09)	-0.10

Ashford Hospitality Trust has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Park Hotels & Resorts. Park Hotels & Resorts is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ashford Hospitality Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Park Hotels & Resorts beats Ashford Hospitality Trust on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Park Hotels & Resorts

Park Hotels & Resorts, Inc. operates as a real estate investment trust, which owns and operates hotels and resorts. It operates through the Consolidated Hotels and Unconsolidated Hotels segments. Its portfolio of hotels and resorts include the Waldorf Astoria Hotels and Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, DoubleTree by Hilton, Embassy Suites by Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton by Hilton, and Curio. The company was founded by Conrad Hilton in 1919 and is headquartered in Tysons, VA.

About Ashford Hospitality Trust

Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc., together with its subsidiaries (Ashford Trust), is a real estate investment trust (REIT). While our portfolio currently consists of upscale hotels and upper upscale full-service hotels, our investment strategy is predominantly focused on investing in upper upscale full-service hotels in the United States that have revenue per available room (RevPAR) generally less than twice the U.S. national average, and in all methods including direct real estate, equity, and debt. We currently anticipate future investments will predominantly be in upper upscale hotels. We own our lodging investments and conduct our business through Ashford Hospitality Limited Partnership (Ashford Trust OP), our operating partnership. Ashford OP General Partner LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ashford Trust, serves as the sole general partner of our operating partnership.