Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPW) and Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) Critical Contrast

Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) and Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPW) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Mid-America Apartment Communities and Medical Properties Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mid-America Apartment Communities	1	8	10	1	2.55
Medical Properties Trust	0	6	1	0	2.14

Mid-America Apartment Communities presently has a consensus target price of $167.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1.71%. Medical Properties Trust has a consensus target price of $4.92, suggesting a potential upside of 2.97%. Given Medical Properties Trust’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Medical Properties Trust is more favorable than Mid-America Apartment Communities.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Mid-America Apartment Communities and Medical Properties Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mid-America Apartment Communities	$2.19 billion	8.76	$527.54 million	$4.48	36.65
Medical Properties Trust	$641.32 million	4.47	-$556.48 million	($4.22)	-1.13

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

Profitability

This table compares Mid-America Apartment Communities and Medical Properties Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mid-America Apartment Communities	24.03%	8.53%	4.52%
Medical Properties Trust	N/A	-38.83%	-15.05%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

93.6% of Mid-America Apartment Communities shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Mid-America Apartment Communities shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Medical Properties Trust shares are held by 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.

Dividends

Mid-America Apartment Communities pays an annual dividend of $6.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Medical Properties Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.7%. Mid-America Apartment Communities pays out 135.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Medical Properties Trust pays out -7.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Mid-America Apartment Communities has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years. Medical Properties Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

Mid-America Apartment Communities has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medical Properties Trust has a beta of 1.32, meaning that its stock price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Mid-America Apartment Communities beats Medical Properties Trust on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mid-America Apartment Communities

Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the operation, acquisition, and development of apartment communities. It operates through the Same Store and Non-Same Store segments. The Same Store Communities segment represents those apartment communities that have been owned and stabilized for at least 12 months as of the first day of the calendar year. The Non-Same Store segment includes recent acquisitions, communities in development or lease-up. The company was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Germantown, TN.

About Medical Properties Trust

Medical Properties Trust, Inc. is a self-advised real estate investment trust formed in 2003 to acquire and develop net-leased hospital facilities. From its inception in Birmingham, Alabama, the Company has grown to become one of the world's largest owners of hospital real estate with 441 facilities and approximately 44,000 licensed beds as of September 30, 2023. Since the end of the third quarter, the Company has sold four facilities and now owns approximately 43,000 licensed beds in nine countries across three continents. MPT's financing model facilitates acquisitions and recapitalizations and allows operators of hospitals to unlock the value of their real estate assets to fund facility improvements, technology upgrades and other investments in operations.