Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) & Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE:ESRT) Head-To-Head Survey

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) and Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE:ESRT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Uniti Group and Empire State Realty Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Uniti Group	1	1	2	0	2.25
Empire State Realty Trust	1	2	0	0	1.67

Uniti Group presently has a consensus price target of $6.25, indicating a potential upside of 128.10%. Empire State Realty Trust has a consensus price target of $8.33, indicating a potential downside of 10.20%. Given Uniti Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Uniti Group is more favorable than Empire State Realty Trust.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Uniti Group and Empire State Realty Trust’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Uniti Group	$1.15 billion	0.57	-$81.71 million	$0.06	45.67
Empire State Realty Trust	$739.57 million	2.07	$53.24 million	$0.30	30.93

Empire State Realty Trust has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Uniti Group. Empire State Realty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Uniti Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Uniti Group has a beta of 1.29, indicating that its share price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Empire State Realty Trust has a beta of 1.4, indicating that its share price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Uniti Group and Empire State Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Uniti Group	1.43%	-0.68%	0.33%
Empire State Realty Trust	6.51%	2.85%	1.17%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

87.5% of Uniti Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.1% of Empire State Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Uniti Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.0% of Empire State Realty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Uniti Group pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 21.9%. Empire State Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Uniti Group pays out 1,000.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Empire State Realty Trust pays out 46.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Empire State Realty Trust beats Uniti Group on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Uniti Group

Uniti, an internally managed real estate investment trust, is engaged in the acquisition and construction of mission critical communications infrastructure, and is a leading provider of fiber and other wireless solutions for the communications industry. As of December 31, 2023, Uniti owns approximately 140,000 fiber route miles, 8.5 million fiber strand miles, and other communications real estate throughout the United States.

About Empire State Realty Trust

Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: ESRT) is a NYC-focused REIT that owns and operates a portfolio of modernized, amenitized, and well-located office, retail, and multifamily assets. The company is the recognized leader in energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality. ESRT's flagship Empire State Building – the "World's Most Famous Building" – includes its Observatory, Tripadvisor's 2023 Travelers' Choice Awards: Best of the Best the #1 attraction in the US for two consecutive years. As of September 30, 2023, ESRT's portfolio is comprised of approximately 8.6 million rentable square feet of office space, 0.7 million rentable square feet of retail space and 727 residential units across three multifamily properties.