Financial Comparison: Easterly Government Properties (NYSE:DEA) vs. Piedmont Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM)

Piedmont Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) and Easterly Government Properties (NYSE:DEA) are both small-cap real estate companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Piedmont Realty Trust and Easterly Government Properties, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Piedmont Realty Trust	1	1	1	0	2.00
Easterly Government Properties	1	4	2	0	2.14

Piedmont Realty Trust currently has a consensus target price of $10.50, suggesting a potential upside of 9.48%. Easterly Government Properties has a consensus target price of $24.49, suggesting a potential upside of 0.37%. Given Piedmont Realty Trust’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Piedmont Realty Trust is more favorable than Easterly Government Properties.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

84.5% of Piedmont Realty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.5% of Easterly Government Properties shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Piedmont Realty Trust shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.5% of Easterly Government Properties shares are held by 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.

Risk & Volatility

Piedmont Realty Trust has a beta of 1.35, suggesting that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Easterly Government Properties has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Piedmont Realty Trust and Easterly Government Properties”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Piedmont Realty Trust	$569.43 million	2.11	-$83.62 million	($0.65)	-14.76
Easterly Government Properties	$336.10 million	3.44	$13.00 million	$0.21	116.20

Easterly Government Properties has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Piedmont Realty Trust. Piedmont Realty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Easterly Government Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Piedmont Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. Easterly Government Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.4%. Piedmont Realty Trust pays out -76.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Easterly Government Properties pays out 857.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Piedmont Realty Trust has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Piedmont Realty Trust and Easterly Government Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Piedmont Realty Trust	-14.18%	-5.39%	-2.00%
Easterly Government Properties	2.86%	0.75%	0.30%

Summary

Easterly Government Properties beats Piedmont Realty Trust on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Piedmont Realty Trust

Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (also referred to herein as "Piedmont" or the "Company") (NYSE: PDM) is an owner, manager, developer, redeveloper and operator of high-quality, Class A office properties located primarily in major U.S. Sunbelt markets. The Company is a fully-integrated, self-managed real estate investment trust ("REIT") with local management offices in each of its markets and is investment-grade rated by Standard & Poor's and Moody's. The Company was designated an Energy Star Partner of the Year for 2021, 2022 and 2023, and it was the only office REIT headquartered in the Southeast to receive those designations. Approximately 85% of the Company's square footage is Energy Star certified and nearly 70% is LEED certified. Piedmont is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

About Easterly Government Properties

Easterly Government Properties, Inc. (NYSE: DEA) is based in Washington, D.C., and focuses primarily on the acquisition, development and management of Class A commercial properties that are leased to the U.S. Government. Easterly’s experienced management team brings specialized insight into the strategy and needs of mission-critical U.S. Government agencies for properties leased to such agencies either directly or through the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA).