Financial Comparison: Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE:HR) vs. Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT)

Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE:HR) and Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT) are both mid-cap real estate companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

71.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Healthcare Realty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Healthcare Realty Trust has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medical Properties Trust has a beta of 1.41, suggesting that its stock price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Healthcare Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Medical Properties Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.8%. Healthcare Realty Trust pays out -369.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Medical Properties Trust pays out -600.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Medical Properties Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Healthcare Realty Trust and Medical Properties Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Healthcare Realty Trust	0	6	4	0	2.40
Medical Properties Trust	1	1	0	0	1.50

Healthcare Realty Trust presently has a consensus target price of $22.00, suggesting a potential upside of 14.05%. Medical Properties Trust has a consensus target price of $4.50, suggesting a potential upside of 10.02%. Given Healthcare Realty Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Healthcare Realty Trust is more favorable than Medical Properties Trust.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Healthcare Realty Trust and Medical Properties Trust”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Healthcare Realty Trust	$1.18 billion	5.60	-$246.07 million	($0.26)	-74.19
Medical Properties Trust	$972.02 million	2.51	-$277.05 million	($0.06)	-68.17

Healthcare Realty Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Medical Properties Trust. Healthcare Realty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Medical Properties Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Healthcare Realty Trust and Medical Properties Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Healthcare Realty Trust	-7.59%	-1.91%	-0.93%
Medical Properties Trust	-2.96%	-0.66%	-0.20%

Summary

Medical Properties Trust beats Healthcare Realty Trust on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Healthcare Realty Trust

Healthcare Realty Trust, Inc. provides real estate investment services. It owns, leases, manages, acquires, finances, develops, and redevelops income-producing real estate properties associated primarily with the delivery of outpatient healthcare services throughout the United States of America. The company was founded by David R. Emery in 1992 and is headquartered in Nashville, TN.

About Medical Properties Trust

Medical Properties Trust, Inc. is a self-advised real estate investment trust formed to capitalize on the changing trends in healthcare delivery by acquiring and developing net-leased healthcare facilities. MPT’s financing model allows hospitals and other healthcare facilities to unlock the value of their underlying real estate in order to fund facility improvements, technology upgrades, staff additions and new construction. Facilities include acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, and other medical and surgical facilities.