Head to Head Survey: Medical Properties Trust (MPT) versus Its Rivals

Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT) is one of 90 publicly-traded companies in the “Real Estate Investment Trusts” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Medical Properties Trust to related companies based on the strength of its risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends and profitability.

Dividends

Medical Properties Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.3%. Medical Properties Trust pays out -30.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Real Estate Investment Trusts” companies pay a dividend yield of 4.0% and pay out 104.2% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Medical Properties Trust is clearly a better dividend stock than its peers, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Volatility & Risk

Medical Properties Trust has a beta of 1.43, indicating that its stock price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medical Properties Trust’s peers have a beta of 1.15, indicating that their average stock price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medical Properties Trust	-75.76%	-14.82%	-4.78%
Medical Properties Trust Competitors	-34.96%	-18.35%	-0.28%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Medical Properties Trust	$995.55 million	-$2.41 billion	-4.87
Medical Properties Trust Competitors	$464.09 million	-$18.05 million	26.72

Medical Properties Trust has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its peers. Medical Properties Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Medical Properties Trust and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medical Properties Trust	1	0	1	0	2.00
Medical Properties Trust Competitors	2346	4058	2395	22	2.01

Medical Properties Trust currently has a consensus target price of $8.00, suggesting a potential upside of 39.13%. As a group, “Real Estate Investment Trusts” companies have a potential upside of 11.78%. Given Medical Properties Trust’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Medical Properties Trust is more favorable than its peers.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

71.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.7% of shares of all “Real Estate Investment Trusts” companies are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Medical Properties Trust shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.9% of shares of all “Real Estate Investment Trusts” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Medical Properties Trust beats its peers on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

Medical Properties Trust Company Profile

Medical Properties Trust, Inc. is a self-advised real estate investment trust formed to capitalize on the changing trends in healthcare delivery by acquiring and developing net-leased healthcare facilities. MPT’s financing model allows hospitals and other healthcare facilities to unlock the value of their underlying real estate in order to fund facility improvements, technology upgrades, staff additions and new construction. Facilities include acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, and other medical and surgical facilities.