Comparing Plymouth Industrial REIT (NYSE:PLYM) and Retail Opportunity Investments (NASDAQ:ROIC)

Plymouth Industrial REIT (NYSE:PLYM) and Retail Opportunity Investments (NASDAQ:ROIC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, earnings and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Plymouth Industrial REIT and Retail Opportunity Investments, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Plymouth Industrial REIT	1	2	3	0	2.33
Retail Opportunity Investments	1	1	2	0	2.25

Plymouth Industrial REIT presently has a consensus price target of $24.67, suggesting a potential upside of 5.32%. Retail Opportunity Investments has a consensus price target of $14.38, suggesting a potential downside of 4.99%. Given Plymouth Industrial REIT’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Plymouth Industrial REIT is more favorable than Retail Opportunity Investments.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.7% of Plymouth Industrial REIT shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.2% of Retail Opportunity Investments shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Plymouth Industrial REIT shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.0% of Retail Opportunity Investments shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Plymouth Industrial REIT and Retail Opportunity Investments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Plymouth Industrial REIT	13.45%	5.47%	1.86%
Retail Opportunity Investments	10.40%	2.57%	1.15%

Risk & Volatility

Plymouth Industrial REIT has a beta of 1.36, meaning that its stock price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Retail Opportunity Investments has a beta of 1.45, meaning that its stock price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Plymouth Industrial REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Retail Opportunity Investments pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Plymouth Industrial REIT pays out 223.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Retail Opportunity Investments pays out 200.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Plymouth Industrial REIT and Retail Opportunity Investments’ top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Plymouth Industrial REIT	$199.46 million	5.33	$13.66 million	$0.43	54.47
Retail Opportunity Investments	$335.05 million	5.76	$34.53 million	$0.30	50.43

Retail Opportunity Investments has higher revenue and earnings than Plymouth Industrial REIT. Retail Opportunity Investments is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Plymouth Industrial REIT, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Plymouth Industrial REIT beats Retail Opportunity Investments on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Plymouth Industrial REIT

Plymouth Industrial REIT, Inc. (NYSE: PLYM) is a full service, vertically integrated real estate investment company focused on the acquisition, ownership and management of single and multi-tenant industrial properties. Our mission is to provide tenants with cost effective space that is functional, flexible and safe.

About Retail Opportunity Investments

Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. (Nasdaq: ROIC), is a fully integrated, self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) that specializes in the acquisition, ownership and management of grocery-anchored shopping centers located in densely populated, metropolitan markets across the West Coast. As of December 31, 2023, ROIC owned 94 shopping centers encompassing approximately 10.6 million square feet. ROIC is the largest publicly-traded, grocery-anchored shopping center REIT focused exclusively on the West Coast. ROIC is a member of the S&P SmallCap 600 Index and has investment-grade corporate debt ratings from Moody's Investor Services, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings, Inc.