Analyzing National Storage Affiliates Trust (NYSE:NSA) & Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND)

Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND) and National Storage Affiliates Trust (NYSE:NSA) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Volatility and Risk

Gladstone Land has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, National Storage Affiliates Trust has a beta of 1.03, suggesting that its stock price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Gladstone Land and National Storage Affiliates Trust”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gladstone Land	$88.34 million	4.25	$13.53 million	($0.61)	-14.28
National Storage Affiliates Trust	$752.93 million	4.67	$73.78 million	$0.75	60.68

National Storage Affiliates Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Gladstone Land. Gladstone Land is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than National Storage Affiliates Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

53.6% of Gladstone Land shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 100.0% of National Storage Affiliates Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 6.1% of Gladstone Land shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 13.7% of National Storage Affiliates Trust shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Gladstone Land and National Storage Affiliates Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gladstone Land	1	2	0	1	2.25
National Storage Affiliates Trust	1	13	0	0	1.93

Gladstone Land currently has a consensus price target of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 14.77%. National Storage Affiliates Trust has a consensus price target of $37.06, indicating a potential downside of 18.58%. Given Gladstone Land’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Gladstone Land is more favorable than National Storage Affiliates Trust.

Profitability

This table compares Gladstone Land and National Storage Affiliates Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gladstone Land	-6.68%	-0.87%	-0.48%
National Storage Affiliates Trust	10.48%	6.46%	1.54%

Dividends

Gladstone Land pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.4%. National Storage Affiliates Trust pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Gladstone Land pays out -91.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. National Storage Affiliates Trust pays out 304.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Gladstone Land has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and National Storage Affiliates Trust has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Gladstone Land is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

National Storage Affiliates Trust beats Gladstone Land on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gladstone Land

Founded in 1997, Gladstone Land is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires and owns farmland and farm-related properties located in major agricultural markets in the U.S. and leases its properties to unrelated third-party farmers. The Company, which reports the aggregate fair value of its farmland holdings on a quarterly basis, currently owns 169 farms, comprised of approximately 116,000 acres in 15 different states and over 45,000 acre-feet of banked water in California, valued at a total of approximately $1.6 billion. Gladstone Land’s farms are predominantly located in regions where its tenants are able to grow fresh produce annual row crops, such as berries and vegetables, which are generally planted and harvested annually. The Company also owns farms growing permanent crops, such as almonds, apples, cherries, figs, lemons, olives, pistachios, and other orchards, as well as blueberry groves and vineyards, which are generally planted every 20-plus years and harvested annually. Approximately 40% of the Company’s fresh produce acreage is either organic or in transition to become organic, and over 10% of its permanent crop acreage falls into this category. The Company may also acquire property related to farming, such as cooling facilities, processing buildings, packaging facilities, and distribution centers. Gladstone Land pays monthly distributions to its stockholders and has paid 129 consecutive monthly cash distributions on its common stock since its initial public offering in January 2013. The Company has increased its common distributions 32 times over the prior 35 quarters, and the current per-share distribution on its common stock is $0.0464 per month, or $0.5568 per year.

About National Storage Affiliates Trust

National Storage Affiliates Trust is a real estate investment trust headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado, focused on the ownership, operation and acquisition of self storage properties predominantly located within the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas throughout the United States. As of December 31, 2023, the Company held ownership interests in and operated 1,050 self storage properties, located in 42 states and Puerto Rico with approximately 68.6 million rentable square feet, which excludes 39 self storage properties classified as held for sale to be sold to a third party. NSA is one of the largest owners and operators of self storage properties among public and private companies in the United States.