Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT) vs. Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE:HR) Head to Head Survey

Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT) and Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE:HR) are both mid-cap real estate companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Medical Properties Trust and Healthcare Realty Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medical Properties Trust	2	1	0	0	1.33
Healthcare Realty Trust	0	6	4	0	2.40

Medical Properties Trust currently has a consensus price target of $4.15, indicating a potential upside of 13.39%. Healthcare Realty Trust has a consensus price target of $21.89, indicating a potential upside of 15.84%. Given Healthcare Realty Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Healthcare Realty Trust is more favorable than Medical Properties Trust.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

71.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Healthcare Realty Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Medical Properties Trust has a beta of 1.4, meaning that its stock price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Healthcare Realty Trust has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and Healthcare Realty Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Medical Properties Trust	$972.02 million	2.25	-$277.05 million	($0.06)	-61.00
Healthcare Realty Trust	$1.18 billion	5.49	-$246.07 million	($0.26)	-72.67

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

Dividends

Medical Properties Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.8%. Healthcare Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. Medical Properties Trust pays out -600.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Healthcare Realty Trust pays out -369.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Medical Properties Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and Healthcare Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medical Properties Trust	-2.96%	-0.66%	-0.20%
Healthcare Realty Trust	-7.59%	-1.91%	-0.93%

Summary

Medical Properties Trust beats Healthcare Realty Trust on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Medical Properties Trust

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.

About Healthcare Realty Trust

Healthcare Realty Trust, Inc. provides real estate investment services. It owns, leases, manages, acquires, finances, develops, and redevelops income-producing real estate properties associated primarily with the delivery of outpatient healthcare services throughout the United States of America. The company was founded by David R. Emery in 1992 and is headquartered in Nashville, TN.