Reviewing Brixmor Property Group (NYSE:BRX) and Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:PECO)

Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:PECO) and Brixmor Property Group (NYSE:BRX) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. and Brixmor Property Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.	0	4	5	0	2.56
Brixmor Property Group	0	2	9	0	2.82

Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. presently has a consensus target price of $39.00, indicating a potential downside of 0.64%. Brixmor Property Group has a consensus target price of $30.70, indicating a potential upside of 3.49%. Given Brixmor Property Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Brixmor Property Group is more favorable than Phillips Edison & Company, Inc..

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.7% of Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.4% of Brixmor Property Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.0% of Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Brixmor Property Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. has a beta of 0.53, indicating that its share price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brixmor Property Group has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. and Brixmor Property Group”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.	$726.59 million	6.80	$111.30 million	$0.89	44.10
Brixmor Property Group	$1.37 billion	6.63	$386.23 million	$1.26	23.54

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

Profitability

This table compares Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. and Brixmor Property Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.	15.32%	4.29%	2.12%
Brixmor Property Group	28.16%	13.00%	4.37%

Dividends

Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. pays an annual dividend of $1.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Brixmor Property Group pays an annual dividend of $1.23 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. pays out 146.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Brixmor Property Group pays out 97.6% 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. has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Brixmor Property Group has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Brixmor Property Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Brixmor Property Group beats Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. on 14 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Brixmor Property Group

Brixmor Property Group, Inc. operates as a real estate investment trust, which engages in owning and operating a portfolio of grocery anchored community and neighborhood shopping centers. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in New York, NY.