Critical Review: OUTFRONT Media (NYSE:OUT) and Public Storage (NYSE:PSA)

OUTFRONT Media (NYSE:OUT) and Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and valuation.

Risk & Volatility

OUTFRONT Media has a beta of 1.48, meaning that its stock price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Public Storage has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

78.8% of Public Storage shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of OUTFRONT Media shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 11.1% of Public Storage shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for OUTFRONT Media and Public Storage, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
OUTFRONT Media	0	1	6	0	2.86
Public Storage	0	14	7	0	2.33

OUTFRONT Media currently has a consensus target price of $34.00, indicating a potential upside of 21.15%. Public Storage has a consensus target price of $327.05, indicating a potential upside of 10.38%. Given OUTFRONT Media’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe OUTFRONT Media is more favorable than Public Storage.

Profitability

This table compares OUTFRONT Media and Public Storage’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
OUTFRONT Media	12.66%	37.44%	4.65%
Public Storage	41.80%	40.98%	10.19%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares OUTFRONT Media and Public Storage”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
OUTFRONT Media	$1.83 billion	2.70	$147.00 million	$1.39	20.19
Public Storage	$4.82 billion	10.79	$1.78 billion	$10.48	28.27

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

Dividends

OUTFRONT Media pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Public Storage pays an annual dividend of $12.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. OUTFRONT Media pays out 95.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. 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. OUTFRONT Media is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Public Storage beats OUTFRONT Media on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About OUTFRONT Media

OUTFRONT Media, Inc. leases advertising space on out-of-home advertising structures and sites. Its inventory consists of billboard displays, which are primarily located on the most heavily traveled highways & roadways, and transit advertising displays operated under exclusive multi-year contracts with municipalities in large cities across the U.S. and Canada. It operates through the U.S. Media and other segments. The U.S. Media segment includes U.S. Billboard and Transit. The company was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

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.