Financial Review: AG Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:MITT) and Highlands REIT (OTCMKTS:HHDS)

AG Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:MITT) and Highlands REIT (OTCMKTS:HHDS) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, risk, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Risk and Volatility

AG Mortgage Investment Trust has a beta of 2.06, meaning that its stock price is 106% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Highlands REIT has a beta of 28.15, meaning that its stock price is 2,715% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

27.3% of AG Mortgage Investment Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Highlands REIT shares are held by institutional investors. 3.2% of AG Mortgage Investment Trust shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of Highlands REIT shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares AG Mortgage Investment Trust and Highlands REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	20.84%	10.05%	0.50%
Highlands REIT	-10.86%	-1.60%	-1.03%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for AG Mortgage Investment Trust and Highlands REIT, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	0	1	3	0	2.75
Highlands REIT	0	0	0	0	N/A

AG Mortgage Investment Trust presently has a consensus price target of $7.50, indicating a potential upside of 14.33%. Given AG Mortgage Investment Trust’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe AG Mortgage Investment Trust is more favorable than Highlands REIT.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares AG Mortgage Investment Trust and Highlands REIT’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	$260.33 million	0.74	$53.78 million	$1.74	3.77
Highlands REIT	$30.98 million	1.10	-$10.30 million	N/A	N/A

AG Mortgage Investment Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Highlands REIT.

Summary

AG Mortgage Investment Trust beats Highlands REIT on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AG Mortgage Investment Trust

AG Mortgage Investment Trust, Inc. operates as a residential mortgage real estate investment trust in the United States. Its investment portfolio includes residential investments, including non-agency loans, agency-eligible loans, re-and non-performing loans, and non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities, as well as commercial loans and commercial mortgage-backed securities. The company qualifies as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes. It generally would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. AG Mortgage Investment Trust, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is based in New York, New York.

About Highlands REIT

We are a self-advised and self-administered real estate investment trust (REIT) created to own and manage substantially all of the non-core investment properties previously owned and managed by our former parent, InvenTrust Properties Corp., a Maryland corporation (InvenTrust). On April 28, 2016, we were spun-off from InvenTrust through a pro rata distribution (the Distribution) by InvenTrust of 100% of the outstanding shares of our common stock to holders of InvenTrust's common stock. Prior to or concurrent with the separation, we and InvenTrust engaged in certain reorganization transactions that were designed to consolidate substantially all of InvenTrust's remaining non-core investment properties in Highlands.