Contrasting Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE:HR) & Brixmor Property Group (NYSE:BRX)

Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE:HR) and Brixmor Property Group (NYSE:BRX) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Healthcare Realty Trust and Brixmor Property Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Healthcare Realty Trust	0	8	2	0	2.20
Brixmor Property Group	0	3	4	0	2.57

Healthcare Realty Trust presently has a consensus price target of $17.20, indicating a potential upside of 25.55%. Brixmor Property Group has a consensus price target of $25.38, indicating a potential upside of 20.66%. Given Healthcare Realty Trust’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Healthcare Realty Trust is more favorable than Brixmor Property Group.

Volatility and Risk

Healthcare Realty Trust has a beta of 0.79, indicating that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brixmor Property Group has a beta of 1.53, indicating that its stock price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Healthcare Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.1%. Brixmor Property Group pays an annual dividend of $1.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. Healthcare Realty Trust pays out -167.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Brixmor Property Group pays out 107.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Brixmor Property Group has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Healthcare Realty Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

98.4% of Brixmor Property Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Healthcare Realty Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Brixmor Property Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Healthcare Realty Trust and Brixmor Property Group’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Healthcare Realty Trust	$1.34 billion	3.89	-$278.26 million	($0.74)	-18.51
Brixmor Property Group	$1.25 billion	5.09	$305.09 million	$1.01	20.82

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

Profitability

This table compares Healthcare Realty Trust and Brixmor Property Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Healthcare Realty Trust	-20.71%	-3.87%	-2.11%
Brixmor Property Group	24.50%	10.63%	3.66%

Summary

Brixmor Property Group beats Healthcare Realty Trust on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Healthcare Realty Trust

Healthcare Realty (NYSE: HR) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and operates medical outpatient buildings primarily located around market-leading hospital campuses. The Company selectively grows its portfolio through property acquisition and development. As the first and largest REIT to specialize in medical outpatient buildings, Healthcare Realty's portfolio includes more than 700 properties totaling over 40 million square feet concentrated in 15 growth markets.

About Brixmor Property Group

Brixmor (NYSE: BRX) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and operates a high-quality, national portfolio of open-air shopping centers. Its 362 retail centers comprise approximately 64 million square feet of prime retail space in established trade areas. The Company strives to own and operate shopping centers that reflect Brixmor's vision to be the center of the communities we serve and are home to a diverse mix of thriving national, regional and local retailers. Brixmor is a proud real estate partner to over 5,000 retailers including The TJX Companies, The Kroger Co., Publix Super Markets and Ross Stores.