Critical Review: Global Self Storage (NASDAQ:SELF) & Global Medical REIT (NYSE:GMRE)

Global Medical REIT (NYSE:GMRE) and Global Self Storage (NASDAQ:SELF) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Dividends

Global Medical REIT pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.8%. Global Self Storage pays an annual dividend of $0.29 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.7%. Global Medical REIT pays out -1,200.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Global Self Storage pays out 181.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Global Medical REIT is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Global Medical REIT and Global Self Storage”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Medical REIT	$138.78 million	3.28	$6.63 million	($0.25)	-135.69
Global Self Storage	$12.53 million	4.62	$2.12 million	$0.16	31.88

Global Medical REIT has higher revenue and earnings than Global Self Storage. Global Medical REIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Global Self Storage, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Global Medical REIT and Global Self Storage, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Medical REIT	1	2	3	1	2.57
Global Self Storage	0	1	0	0	2.00

Global Medical REIT currently has a consensus price target of $41.50, suggesting a potential upside of 22.34%. Given Global Medical REIT’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Global Medical REIT is more favorable than Global Self Storage.

Profitability

This table compares Global Medical REIT and Global Self Storage’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Global Medical REIT	0.79%	0.25%	0.09%
Global Self Storage	14.13%	3.81%	2.76%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

57.5% of Global Medical REIT shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 28.9% of Global Self Storage shares are held by institutional investors. 8.5% of Global Medical REIT shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 8.0% of Global Self Storage shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Global Medical REIT has a beta of 1.18, indicating that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Global Self Storage has a beta of 0.01, indicating that its stock price is 99% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Global Medical REIT beats Global Self Storage on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Global Medical REIT

Global Medical REIT Inc. (GMRE) is a net-lease medical office real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and acquires healthcare facilities and leases those facilities to physician groups and regional and national healthcare systems.

About Global Self Storage

Global Self Storage is a self-administered and self-managed REIT that owns, operates, manages, acquires, and redevelops self-storage properties. The company's self-storage properties are designed to offer affordable, easily accessible and secure storage space for residential and commercial customers. Through its wholly owned subsidiaries, the company owns and/or manages 13 self-storage properties in Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Oklahoma.