Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) vs. Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) Head to Head Survey

Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) and Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) are both large-cap real estate companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Public Storage and Digital Realty Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Public Storage	0	14	7	0	2.33
Digital Realty Trust	0	6	25	1	2.84

Public Storage currently has a consensus price target of $326.05, indicating a potential upside of 0.37%. Digital Realty Trust has a consensus price target of $218.16, indicating a potential upside of 14.44%. Given Digital Realty Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Digital Realty Trust is more favorable than Public Storage.

Profitability

This table compares Public Storage and Digital Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Public Storage	41.80%	40.98%	10.19%
Digital Realty Trust	11.80%	3.34%	1.59%

Volatility and Risk

Public Storage has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Digital Realty Trust has a beta of 1.03, suggesting that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Public Storage pays an annual dividend of $12.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Digital Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $4.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Public Storage pays out 114.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Digital Realty Trust pays out 236.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Public Storage is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

78.8% of Public Storage shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.7% of Digital Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.1% of Public Storage shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Digital Realty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Public Storage and Digital Realty Trust”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Public Storage	$4.82 billion	11.83	$1.78 billion	$10.48	31.00
Digital Realty Trust	$6.11 billion	11.54	$1.31 billion	$2.06	92.54

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

Summary

Public Storage beats Digital Realty Trust on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Public Storage

Public Storage, a member of the S&P 500 and FT Global 500, is a REIT that primarily acquires, develops, owns, and operates self-storage facilities. At December 31, 2023, we had: (i) interests in 3,044 self-storage facilities located in 40 states with approximately 218 million net rentable square feet in the United States and (ii) a 35% common equity interest in Shurgard Self Storage Limited (Euronext Brussels: SHUR), which owned 275 self-storage facilities located in seven Western European nations with approximately 15 million net rentable square feet operated under the Shurgard brand. Our headquarters are located in Glendale, California.

About Digital Realty Trust

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. operates as a real estate investment trust, which engages in the provision of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. It serves the following industries: artificial intelligence (AI), networks, cloud, digital media, mobile, financial services, healthcare, and gaming. The company was founded on March 9, 2004, and is headquartered in Dallas, TX.