Contrasting Americold Realty Trust (NYSE:COLD) and LXP Industrial Trust (NYSE:LXP)

Americold Realty Trust (NYSE:COLD) and LXP Industrial Trust (NYSE:LXP) are both mid-cap real estate companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Americold Realty Trust and LXP Industrial Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Americold Realty Trust	4	8	4	0	2.00
LXP Industrial Trust	0	7	3	0	2.30

Americold Realty Trust presently has a consensus target price of $15.25, suggesting a potential upside of 5.69%. LXP Industrial Trust has a consensus target price of $56.17, suggesting a potential downside of 7.32%. Given Americold Realty Trust’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Americold Realty Trust is more favorable than LXP Industrial Trust.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

98.1% of Americold Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.5% of LXP Industrial Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Americold Realty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of LXP Industrial Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Americold Realty Trust and LXP Industrial Trust”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Americold Realty Trust	$2.60 billion	1.58	-$114.55 million	($0.39)	-37.00
LXP Industrial Trust	$347.70 million	10.28	$113.16 million	$1.00	60.60

LXP Industrial Trust has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Americold Realty Trust. Americold Realty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than LXP Industrial Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Americold Realty Trust and LXP Industrial Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Americold Realty Trust	-4.29%	-3.73%	-1.38%
LXP Industrial Trust	18.66%	3.37%	1.83%

Dividends

Americold Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.4%. LXP Industrial Trust pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Americold Realty Trust pays out -235.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. LXP Industrial Trust pays out 280.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Americold Realty Trust has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and LXP Industrial Trust has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Americold Realty Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Volatility and Risk

Americold Realty Trust has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LXP Industrial Trust has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

LXP Industrial Trust beats Americold Realty Trust on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Americold Realty Trust

Americold Realty Trust, Inc. is a real estate investment trust, which focuses on the ownership, operation, development, and acquisition of temperature-controlled warehouses. It operates through the following segments: Warehouse, Third-Party Managed, Transportation, and Other. The Warehouse segment collects rent and storage fees from customers to store frozen and perishable food and other products within the firm’s real estate portfolio. The Third-Party Managed segment manages warehouses on behalf of third parties and provides warehouse management services to food retailers and manufacturers in customer-owned facilities. The Transportation segment is involved in brokering and managing transportation of frozen and perishable food and other products. The Other segment includes ownership in a limestone quarry in Carthage, Missouri. The company was founded in 1931 and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

About LXP Industrial Trust

LXP Industrial Trust (NYSE: LXP) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on single-tenant industrial real estate investments across the United States. LXP seeks to expand its industrial portfolio through acquisitions, build-to-suit transactions, sale-leaseback transactions, development projects and other transactions.