Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND – Get Free Report) and Medalist Diversified REIT (NASDAQ:MDRR – Get Free Report) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends and valuation.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Gladstone Land and Medalist Diversified REIT, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Gladstone Land | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2.25 |
| Medalist Diversified REIT | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.00 |
Gladstone Land currently has a consensus target price of $10.00, suggesting a potential downside of 1.33%. Given Gladstone Land’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Gladstone Land is more favorable than Medalist Diversified REIT.
Earnings & Valuation
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Gladstone Land | $88.34 million | 4.75 | $13.53 million | ($0.12) | -84.46 |
| Medalist Diversified REIT | $10.40 million | 1.57 | -$2.39 million | ($1.84) | -6.21 |
Gladstone Land has higher revenue and earnings than Medalist Diversified REIT. Gladstone Land is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Medalist Diversified REIT, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Gladstone Land and Medalist Diversified REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Gladstone Land | 15.31% | 2.01% | 1.08% |
| Medalist Diversified REIT | -22.37% | -9.28% | -2.86% |
Risk & Volatility
Gladstone Land has a beta of 1.18, indicating that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medalist Diversified REIT has a beta of 0.53, indicating that its share price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
53.6% of Gladstone Land shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 17.4% of Medalist Diversified REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.0% of Gladstone Land shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 43.8% of Medalist Diversified REIT shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Dividends
Gladstone Land pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.5%. Medalist Diversified REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.27 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Gladstone Land pays out -466.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Medalist Diversified REIT pays out -14.7% 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. Gladstone Land has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Medalist Diversified REIT has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Gladstone Land is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
Gladstone Land beats Medalist Diversified REIT on 14 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Gladstone Land
Founded in 1997, Gladstone Land is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires and owns farmland and farm-related properties located in major agricultural markets in the U.S. and leases its properties to unrelated third-party farmers. The Company, which reports the aggregate fair value of its farmland holdings on a quarterly basis, currently owns 169 farms, comprised of approximately 116,000 acres in 15 different states and over 45,000 acre-feet of banked water in California, valued at a total of approximately $1.6 billion. Gladstone Land’s farms are predominantly located in regions where its tenants are able to grow fresh produce annual row crops, such as berries and vegetables, which are generally planted and harvested annually. The Company also owns farms growing permanent crops, such as almonds, apples, cherries, figs, lemons, olives, pistachios, and other orchards, as well as blueberry groves and vineyards, which are generally planted every 20-plus years and harvested annually. Approximately 40% of the Company’s fresh produce acreage is either organic or in transition to become organic, and over 10% of its permanent crop acreage falls into this category. The Company may also acquire property related to farming, such as cooling facilities, processing buildings, packaging facilities, and distribution centers. Gladstone Land pays monthly distributions to its stockholders and has paid 129 consecutive monthly cash distributions on its common stock since its initial public offering in January 2013. The Company has increased its common distributions 32 times over the prior 35 quarters, and the current per-share distribution on its common stock is $0.0464 per month, or $0.5568 per year.
About Medalist Diversified REIT
Medalist Diversified REIT Inc. is a Virginia-based real estate investment trust that specializes in acquiring, owning and managing commercial real estate in the Southeast region of the U.S. The Company's strategy is to focus on commercial real estate which is expected to provide an attractive balance of risk and returns. Medalist utilizes a rigorous, consistent and replicable process for sourcing and conducting due diligence of acquisitions.
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