Comparing RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) & COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP)

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) and COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for RLJ Lodging Trust and COPT Defense Properties, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
RLJ Lodging Trust	3	3	2	1	2.11
COPT Defense Properties	0	3	5	0	2.63

RLJ Lodging Trust presently has a consensus price target of $8.64, suggesting a potential upside of 5.92%. COPT Defense Properties has a consensus price target of $33.88, suggesting a potential upside of 4.55%. Given RLJ Lodging Trust’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe RLJ Lodging Trust is more favorable than COPT Defense Properties.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares RLJ Lodging Trust and COPT Defense Properties”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
RLJ Lodging Trust	$1.35 billion	0.92	$28.51 million	$0.02	408.00
COPT Defense Properties	$763.92 million	4.80	$152.32 million	$1.35	24.00

COPT Defense Properties has lower revenue, but higher earnings than RLJ Lodging Trust. COPT Defense Properties is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than RLJ Lodging Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.4% of RLJ Lodging Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 2.6% of RLJ Lodging Trust shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of COPT Defense Properties shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

RLJ Lodging Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.4%. COPT Defense Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. RLJ Lodging Trust pays out 3,000.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. COPT Defense Properties pays out 90.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. RLJ Lodging Trust has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. RLJ Lodging Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares RLJ Lodging Trust and COPT Defense Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
RLJ Lodging Trust	2.11%	1.54%	0.59%
COPT Defense Properties	19.94%	9.82%	3.46%

Risk & Volatility

RLJ Lodging Trust has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, COPT Defense Properties has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

About RLJ Lodging Trust

RLJ Lodging Trust is a self-advised, publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns primarily premium-branded, high-margin, focused-service and compact full-service hotels. The Company's portfolio currently consists of 96 hotels with approximately 21,200 rooms, located in 23 states and the District of Columbia and an ownership interest in one unconsolidated hotel with 171 rooms.

About COPT Defense Properties

COPT Defense Properties is a real estate investment trust. It acquires, develops, manages, sells, and leases out office properties and data centers. The firm operates through the following segments: Defense/Information Technology Locations, Regional Office, Wholesale Data Center, and Other. The company was founded on January 22,1988 and is headquartered in Columbia, MD.