Regency Centers (NASDAQ:REG) versus CTO Realty Growth (NYSE:CTO) Critical Review

CTO Realty Growth (NYSE:CTO) and Regency Centers (NASDAQ:REG) are both real estate companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for CTO Realty Growth and Regency Centers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CTO Realty Growth	0	1	3	2	3.17
Regency Centers	0	11	6	2	2.53

CTO Realty Growth presently has a consensus target price of $24.67, indicating a potential upside of 13.05%. Regency Centers has a consensus target price of $83.75, indicating a potential upside of 5.92%. Given CTO Realty Growth’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe CTO Realty Growth is more favorable than Regency Centers.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

67.2% of CTO Realty Growth shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of Regency Centers shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.5% of CTO Realty Growth shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Regency Centers shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares CTO Realty Growth and Regency Centers”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CTO Realty Growth	$149.54 million	5.47	$10.09 million	$1.36	16.04
Regency Centers	$1.62 billion	8.95	$527.46 million	$2.95	26.80

Regency Centers has higher revenue and earnings than CTO Realty Growth. CTO Realty Growth is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Regency Centers, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

CTO Realty Growth pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.0%. Regency Centers pays an annual dividend of $3.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. CTO Realty Growth pays out 111.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Regency Centers pays out 102.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Regency Centers has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years.

Volatility & Risk

CTO Realty Growth has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Regency Centers has a beta of 0.8, indicating that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares CTO Realty Growth and Regency Centers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CTO Realty Growth	32.63%	8.90%	4.05%
Regency Centers	34.38%	8.04%	4.26%

Summary

Regency Centers beats CTO Realty Growth on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CTO Realty Growth

CTO Realty Growth, Inc. is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns and operates a portfolio of high-quality, retail-based properties located primarily in higher growth markets in the United States. CTO also externally manages and owns a meaningful interest in Alpine Income Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE: PINE), a publicly traded net lease REIT.

About Regency Centers

Regency Centers is a preeminent national owner, operator, and developer of shopping centers located in suburban trade areas with compelling demographics. Our portfolio includes thriving properties merchandised with highly productive grocers, restaurants, service providers, and best-in-class retailers that connect to their neighborhoods, communities, and customers. Operating as a fully integrated real estate company, Regency Centers is a qualified real estate investment trust (REIT) that is self-administered, self-managed, and an S&P 500 Index member.