Comparing Medalist Diversified REIT (NASDAQ:MDRR) & Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI)

Medalist Diversified REIT (NASDAQ:MDRR) and Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability and dividends.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medalist Diversified REIT	-2.18%	-18.35%	-3.87%
Crown Castle	18.59%	20.98%	3.20%

Dividends

Medalist Diversified REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Crown Castle pays an annual dividend of $6.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.8%. Medalist Diversified REIT pays out -118.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Crown Castle pays out 222.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

17.4% of Medalist Diversified REIT shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.8% of Crown Castle shares are held by institutional investors. 56.1% of Medalist Diversified REIT shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Crown Castle shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Medalist Diversified REIT has a beta of 0.72, indicating that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Crown Castle has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Medalist Diversified REIT	$9.92 million	1.42	-$4.57 million	($0.22)	-57.52
Crown Castle	$6.98 billion	5.74	$1.50 billion	$2.82	32.70

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

Analyst Ratings

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medalist Diversified REIT	0	0	0	0	0.00
Crown Castle	1	10	5	1	2.35

Crown Castle has a consensus target price of $108.75, indicating a potential upside of 17.94%. Given Crown Castle’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Crown Castle is more favorable than Medalist Diversified REIT.

Summary

Crown Castle beats Medalist Diversified REIT on 15 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Medalist Diversified REIT

Medalist Diversified REIT Inc. is a Virginia-based real estate investment trust that specializes in acquiring, owning and managing commercial real estate in the Southeast region of the U.S. The Company's strategy is to focus on commercial real estate which is expected to provide an attractive balance of risk and returns. Medalist utilizes a rigorous, consistent and replicable process for sourcing and conducting due diligence of acquisitions.

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.