Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) & Safehold (NYSE:SAFE) Critical Contrast

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) and Safehold (NYSE:SAFE) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

90.8% of Crown Castle shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.4% of Safehold shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Crown Castle shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of Safehold shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Crown Castle and Safehold’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Crown Castle	20.71%	-51.60%	3.70%
Safehold	27.70%	4.76%	1.62%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Crown Castle and Safehold, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Crown Castle	0	12	7	2	2.52
Safehold	1	7	2	0	2.10

Crown Castle presently has a consensus price target of $95.13, suggesting a potential upside of 27.60%. Safehold has a consensus price target of $17.17, suggesting a potential upside of 11.85%. Given Crown Castle’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Crown Castle is more favorable than Safehold.

Volatility & Risk

Crown Castle has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Safehold has a beta of 1.73, suggesting that its stock price is 73% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Crown Castle pays an annual dividend of $4.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.7%. Safehold pays an annual dividend of $0.71 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Crown Castle pays out 215.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Safehold pays out 43.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Safehold has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Crown Castle and Safehold”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Crown Castle	$4.26 billion	7.44	$444.00 million	$1.97	37.84
Safehold	$385.55 million	2.82	$114.47 million	$1.62	9.47

Crown Castle has higher revenue and earnings than Safehold. Safehold is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Crown Castle, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Crown Castle beats Safehold on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 90,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions across every major U.S. market. This nationwide portfolio of communications infrastructure connects cities and communities to essential data, technology and wireless service – bringing information, ideas and innovations to the people and businesses that need them.

About Safehold

Safehold Inc. (NYSE: SAFE) is revolutionizing real estate ownership by providing a new and better way for owners to unlock the value of the land beneath their buildings. Having created the modern ground lease industry in 2017, Safehold continues to help owners of high quality multifamily, office, industrial, hospitality, student housing, life science and mixed-use properties generate higher returns with less risk. The Company, which is taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT), seeks to deliver safe, growing income and long-term capital appreciation to its shareholders.