Global Net Lease (NYSE:GNL) & American Tower (NYSE:AMT) Financial Contrast

Global Net Lease (NYSE:GNL) and American Tower (NYSE:AMT) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability, earnings and institutional ownership.

Risk and Volatility

Global Net Lease has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Tower has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Global Net Lease and American Tower’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Global Net Lease	-43.75%	-9.71%	-3.18%
American Tower	12.60%	24.85%	4.01%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Global Net Lease and American Tower, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Global Net Lease	0	2	3	1	2.83
American Tower	0	3	12	2	2.94

Global Net Lease presently has a consensus target price of $9.20, suggesting a potential upside of 14.50%. American Tower has a consensus target price of $244.73, suggesting a potential upside of 23.38%. Given American Tower’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe American Tower is more favorable than Global Net Lease.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Global Net Lease and American Tower”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Global Net Lease	$805.01 million	2.21	-$131.57 million	($1.44)	-5.58
American Tower	$10.13 billion	9.17	$2.26 billion	$2.75	72.13

American Tower has higher revenue and earnings than Global Net Lease. Global Net Lease is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Tower, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

61.2% of Global Net Lease shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.7% of American Tower shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Global Net Lease shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of American Tower shares are owned by 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.

Dividends

Global Net Lease pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.5%. American Tower pays an annual dividend of $6.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Global Net Lease pays out -52.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Tower pays out 247.3% 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 Tower has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Global Net Lease is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

American Tower beats Global Net Lease on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Global Net Lease

Global Net Lease, Inc. (NYSE: GNL) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust listed on the NYSE. The firm focused on acquiring a diversified global portfolio of commercial properties, with an emphasis on sale-leaseback transactions involving single tenant, mission critical income producing net-leased assets across the United States, Western and Northern Europe.

About American Tower

American Tower, one of the largest global REITs, is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a portfolio of over 224,000 communications sites and a highly interconnected footprint of U.S. data center facilities.