Critical Comparison: Acadia Realty Trust (NYSE:AKR) & Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:PECO)

Acadia Realty Trust (NYSE:AKR) and Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:PECO) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability and earnings.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.7% of Acadia Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.7% of Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.8% of Acadia Realty Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 8.0% of Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Acadia Realty Trust has a beta of 1.47, indicating that its share price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. has a beta of 0.54, indicating that its share price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Acadia Realty Trust and Phillips Edison & Company, Inc., as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Acadia Realty Trust	1	2	3	0	2.33
Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.	0	4	3	0	2.43

Acadia Realty Trust presently has a consensus target price of $23.50, indicating a potential upside of 17.53%. Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. has a consensus target price of $38.83, indicating a potential upside of 15.06%. Given Acadia Realty Trust’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Acadia Realty Trust is more favorable than Phillips Edison & Company, Inc..

Profitability

This table compares Acadia Realty Trust and Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Acadia Realty Trust	5.31%	0.79%	0.45%
Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.	9.91%	2.64%	1.35%

Dividends

Acadia Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. pays an annual dividend of $1.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Acadia Realty Trust pays out 500.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. pays out 236.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Acadia Realty Trust has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Acadia Realty Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Acadia Realty Trust and Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Acadia Realty Trust	$359.69 million	7.28	$21.65 million	$0.16	124.97
Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.	$661.39 million	6.41	$62.69 million	$0.55	61.36

Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. has higher revenue and earnings than Acadia Realty Trust. Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Acadia Realty Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. beats Acadia Realty Trust on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Acadia Realty Trust

Acadia Realty Trust is an equity real estate investment trust focused on delivering long-term, profitable growth via its dual Core Portfolio and Fund operating platforms and its disciplined, location-driven investment strategy. Acadia Realty Trust is accomplishing this goal by building a best-in-class core real estate portfolio with meaningful concentrations of assets in the nation's most dynamic corridors; making profitable opportunistic and value-add investments through its series of discretionary, institutional funds; and maintaining a strong balance sheet.

About Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.

Phillips Edison & Co., Inc. is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the ownership and operation of shopping centers. It also offers an investment management business providing property management and advisory services. Its portfolio consists of well-occupied, grocery-anchored neighborhood and community shopping centers having a mix of national, regional, and local retailers offering necessity-based goods and services. The company was founded by Jeffrey S. Edison and Michael C. Phillips in 1991 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, OH.