Financial Survey: Plymouth Industrial REIT (NYSE:PLYM) versus City Office REIT (NYSE:CIO)

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

Dividends

City Office REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.1%. Plymouth Industrial REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. City Office REIT pays out -142.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. 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. City Office REIT is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Volatility and Risk

City Office REIT has a beta of 1.95, indicating that its stock price is 95% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Plymouth Industrial REIT has a beta of 1.36, indicating that its stock price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for City Office REIT and Plymouth Industrial REIT, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
City Office REIT	0	0	0	0	N/A
Plymouth Industrial REIT	1	3	3	0	2.29

Plymouth Industrial REIT has a consensus price target of $25.57, indicating a potential upside of 18.17%. Given Plymouth Industrial REIT’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Plymouth Industrial REIT is more favorable than City Office REIT.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

67.5% of City Office REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.7% of Plymouth Industrial REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.9% of City Office REIT shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Plymouth Industrial REIT shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares City Office REIT and Plymouth Industrial REIT”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
City Office REIT	$175.37 million	1.30	-$2.68 million	($0.28)	-20.25
Plymouth Industrial REIT	$199.46 million	4.92	$13.66 million	$0.43	50.33

Plymouth Industrial REIT has higher revenue and earnings than City Office REIT. City Office REIT 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.

Profitability

This table compares City Office REIT and Plymouth Industrial REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
City Office REIT	-4.02%	-1.07%	-0.47%
Plymouth Industrial REIT	13.45%	5.47%	1.86%

Summary

Plymouth Industrial REIT beats City Office REIT on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About City Office REIT

City Office REIT is an internally-managed real estate company focused on acquiring, owning and operating high-quality office properties located predominantly in Sun Belt markets. City Office currently owns or has a controlling interest in 5.7 million square feet of office properties. The Company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes.

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.