RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (OTCMKTS:RIOCF) & Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE) Head-To-Head Review

RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (OTCMKTS:RIOCF) and Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE) are both real estate companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust and Urban Edge Properties, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust	0	0	0	0	0.00
Urban Edge Properties	0	4	2	0	2.33

Urban Edge Properties has a consensus price target of $23.20, indicating a potential upside of 7.51%. Given Urban Edge Properties’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Urban Edge Properties is more favorable than RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

33.6% of RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.9% of Urban Edge Properties shares are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of Urban Edge Properties shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust and Urban Edge Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A
Urban Edge Properties	22.20%	7.80%	3.24%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust and Urban Edge Properties”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A	$2.46	6.32
Urban Edge Properties	$471.93 million	5.76	$93.54 million	$0.86	25.09

Urban Edge Properties has higher revenue and earnings than RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust. RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Urban Edge Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.41 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.1%. Urban Edge Properties pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust pays out 57.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Urban Edge Properties pays out 97.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Urban Edge Properties has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Urban Edge Properties beats RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust

RioCan is one of Canada's largest real estate investment trusts. RioCan owns, manages and develops retail-focused, increasingly mixed-use properties located in prime, high-density transit-oriented areas where Canadians want to shop, live and work. As at December 31, 2023, our portfolio is comprised of 188 properties with an aggregate net leasable area of approximately 32.6 million square feet (at RioCan's interest) including office, residential rental and 9 development properties.

About Urban Edge Properties

Urban Edge Properties is a NYSE listed real estate investment trust focused on owning, managing, acquiring, developing, and redeveloping retail real estate in urban communities, primarily in the Washington, D.C. to Boston corridor. Urban Edge owns 76 properties totaling 17.1 million square feet of gross leasable area.