Financial Survey: American Assets Trust (NYSE:AAT) versus Broadstone Net Lease (NYSE:BNL)

American Assets Trust (NYSE:AAT) and Broadstone Net Lease (NYSE:BNL) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, valuation, risk and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

90.4% of American Assets Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.1% of Broadstone Net Lease shares are owned by institutional investors. 37.3% of American Assets Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Broadstone Net Lease shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares American Assets Trust and Broadstone Net Lease’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Assets Trust	12.00%	4.62%	1.78%
Broadstone Net Lease	36.78%	4.86%	2.96%

Dividends

American Assets Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Broadstone Net Lease pays an annual dividend of $1.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.3%. American Assets Trust pays out 150.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Broadstone Net Lease pays out 120.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Broadstone Net Lease is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares American Assets Trust and Broadstone Net Lease”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Assets Trust	$445.27 million	3.72	$64.69 million	$0.89	30.55
Broadstone Net Lease	$425.82 million	8.10	$155.48 million	$0.96	19.07

Broadstone Net Lease has lower revenue, but higher earnings than American Assets Trust. Broadstone Net Lease is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Assets Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for American Assets Trust and Broadstone Net Lease, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Assets Trust	0	1	0	0	2.00
Broadstone Net Lease	1	3	2	0	2.17

American Assets Trust presently has a consensus price target of $26.00, suggesting a potential downside of 4.38%. Broadstone Net Lease has a consensus price target of $18.00, suggesting a potential downside of 1.69%. Given Broadstone Net Lease’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Broadstone Net Lease is more favorable than American Assets Trust.

Volatility & Risk

American Assets Trust has a beta of 1.3, indicating that its share price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Broadstone Net Lease has a beta of 1.11, indicating that its share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Broadstone Net Lease beats American Assets Trust on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About American Assets Trust

American Assets Trust, Inc. is a full service, vertically integrated and self-administered real estate investment trust ("REIT"), headquartered in San Diego, California. The company has over 55 years of experience in acquiring, improving, developing and managing premier office, retail, and residential properties throughout the United States in some of the nation's most dynamic, high-barrier-to-entry markets primarily in Southern California, Northern California, Washington, Oregon, Texas and Hawaii. The company's office portfolio comprises approximately 4.1 million rentable square feet, and its retail portfolio comprises approximately 3.1 million rentable square feet. In addition, the company owns one mixed-use property (including approximately 94,000 rentable square feet of retail space and a 369-room all-suite hotel) and 2,110 multifamily units. In 2011, the company was formed to succeed to the real estate business of American Assets, Inc., a privately held corporation founded in 1967 and, as such, has significant experience, long-standing relationships and extensive knowledge of its core markets, submarkets and asset classes.

About Broadstone Net Lease

BNL is an industrial-focused, diversified net lease REIT that acquires, owns, and manages primarily single-tenant commercial real estate properties that are net leased on a long-term basis to a diversified group of tenants. Utilizing an investment strategy underpinned by strong fundamental credit analysis and prudent real estate underwriting, as of September 30, 2023, BNL's diversified portfolio consisted of 800 individual net leased commercial properties with 793 properties located in 44 U.S. states and seven properties located in four Canadian provinces across the industrial, healthcare, restaurant, retail, and office property types.