Critical Analysis: Medical Properties Trust (MPT) vs. Its Rivals

Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT) is one of 87 public companies in the “Real Estate Investment Trusts” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare Medical Properties Trust to similar businesses based on the strength of its profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

Medical Properties Trust has a beta of 1.39, meaning that its stock price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medical Properties Trust’s rivals have a beta of 1.16, meaning that their average stock price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Medical Properties Trust and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medical Properties Trust	1	0	0	0	1.00
Medical Properties Trust Competitors	2345	4032	2363	20	2.01

As a group, “Real Estate Investment Trusts” companies have a potential upside of 25.87%. Given Medical Properties Trust’s rivals stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Medical Properties Trust has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

71.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.6% of shares of all “Real Estate Investment Trusts” companies are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Medical Properties Trust shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.0% of shares of all “Real Estate Investment Trusts” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Medical Properties Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.5%. Medical Properties Trust pays out -78.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Real Estate Investment Trusts” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.8% and pay out 105.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Medical Properties Trust is clearly a better dividend stock than its rivals, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medical Properties Trust	-28.50%	-5.87%	-1.85%
Medical Properties Trust Competitors	-36.03%	-19.16%	-0.33%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Medical Properties Trust	$972.02 million	-$277.05 million	-10.41
Medical Properties Trust Competitors	$473.64 million	$15.54 million	27.07

Medical Properties Trust has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its rivals. Medical Properties Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Medical Properties Trust rivals beat Medical Properties Trust on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

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.