Financial Survey: American Assets Trust (NYSE:AAT) vs. Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG)

Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG) and American Assets Trust (NYSE:AAT) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Simon Property Group and American Assets Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Simon Property Group	0	6	5	0	2.45
American Assets Trust	0	2	0	0	2.00

Simon Property Group presently has a consensus price target of $182.6364, indicating a potential upside of 7.88%. American Assets Trust has a consensus price target of $21.00, indicating a potential upside of 8.22%. Given American Assets Trust’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe American Assets Trust is more favorable than Simon Property Group.

Risk and Volatility

Simon Property Group has a beta of 1.48, indicating that its share price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Assets Trust has a beta of 1.17, indicating that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Simon Property Group and American Assets Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Simon Property Group	36.78%	72.38%	6.75%
American Assets Trust	16.26%	6.47%	2.34%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Simon Property Group and American Assets Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Simon Property Group	$5.96 billion	9.27	$2.37 billion	$6.47	26.17
American Assets Trust	$457.86 million	2.59	$72.82 million	$1.16	16.73

Simon Property Group has higher revenue and earnings than American Assets Trust. American Assets Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Simon Property Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Simon Property Group pays an annual dividend of $8.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. American Assets Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.0%. Simon Property Group pays out 129.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. American Assets Trust pays out 117.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Simon Property Group has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years and American Assets Trust has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years. American Assets Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

93.0% of Simon Property Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.4% of American Assets Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 8.6% of Simon Property Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 36.8% of American Assets Trust shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Simon Property Group beats American Assets Trust on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Simon Property Group

Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE:SPG) is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). Simon Property Group, L.P., or the Operating Partnership, is our majority-owned partnership subsidiary that owns all of our real estate properties and other assets. In this package, the terms Simon, we, our, or the Company refer to Simon Property Group, Inc., the Operating Partnership, and its subsidiaries. We own, develop and manage premier shopping, dining, entertainment and mixed-use destinations, which consist primarily of malls, Premium Outlets, The Mills, and International Properties. At June 30, 2024, we owned or had an interest in 230 properties comprising 183 million square feet in North America, Asia and Europe. We also owned an 84% interest in The Taubman Realty Group, or TRG, which owns 22 regional, super-regional, and outlet malls in the U.S. and Asia. Additionally, at June 30, 2024, we had a 22.4% ownership interest in Klépierre, a publicly traded, Paris-based real estate company, which owns shopping centers in 14 European countries.

About American Assets Trust

American Assets Trust, Inc. is a full service, vertically integrated and self-administered real estate investment trust ("REIT"), headquartered in San Diego, California. The company has over 55 years of experience in acquiring, improving, developing and managing premier office, retail, and residential properties throughout the United States in some of the nation's most dynamic, high-barrier-to-entry markets primarily in Southern California, Northern California, Washington, Oregon, Texas and Hawaii. The company's office portfolio comprises approximately 4.1 million rentable square feet, and its retail portfolio comprises approximately 3.1 million rentable square feet. In addition, the company owns one mixed-use property (including approximately 94,000 rentable square feet of retail space and a 369-room all-suite hotel) and 2,110 multifamily units. In 2011, the company was formed to succeed to the real estate business of American Assets, Inc., a privately held corporation founded in 1967 and, as such, has significant experience, long-standing relationships and extensive knowledge of its core markets, submarkets and asset classes.