Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LANDM) and Smartstop Self Storage REIT (NYSE:SMA) Critical Comparison

Smartstop Self Storage REIT (NYSE:SMA) and Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LANDM) are both real estate companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and risk.

Dividends

Smartstop Self Storage REIT pays an annual dividend of $1.63 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Gladstone Land pays an annual dividend of $1.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Smartstop Self Storage REIT pays out 319.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Profitability

This table compares Smartstop Self Storage REIT and Gladstone Land’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Smartstop Self Storage REIT	9.68%	2.33%	1.23%
Gladstone Land	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Smartstop Self Storage REIT and Gladstone Land, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Smartstop Self Storage REIT	1	3	4	2	2.70
Gladstone Land	0	0	0	0	0.00

Smartstop Self Storage REIT currently has a consensus price target of $36.47, indicating a potential upside of 6.90%. Given Smartstop Self Storage REIT’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Smartstop Self Storage REIT is more favorable than Gladstone Land.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Smartstop Self Storage REIT and Gladstone Land”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Smartstop Self Storage REIT	$281.14 million	6.72	-$1.55 million	$0.51	66.89
Gladstone Land	$88.48 million	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Gladstone Land has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Smartstop Self Storage REIT.

Summary

Smartstop Self Storage REIT beats Gladstone Land on 8 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Smartstop Self Storage REIT

Symmetry Medical Inc. (Symmetry) is a medical device solutions company, including surgical instruments, orthopedic implants, and sterilization cases and trays. The Company designs, develops and offers worldwide production and supply chain capabilities for these products to customers in the orthopedic industry, and other medical device markets (including but not limited to arthroscopy, dental, laparoscopy, osteobiologic, and endoscopy segments). It also manufactures specialized non-healthcare products, primarily in the aerospace industry. The Company operates in two segments: original equipment manufacturer (OEM) solutions and symmetry surgical. On August 15, 2011, the Company acquired PSC Industries, Inc’s Olsen Medical division. On December 29, 2011 it acquired the surgical instruments product portfolio from Codman & Shurtleff, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson Company.

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.