Macerich (NYSE:MAC) vs. CTO Realty Growth (NYSE:CTO) Head to Head Comparison

CTO Realty Growth (NYSE:CTO) and Macerich (NYSE:MAC) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for CTO Realty Growth and Macerich, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CTO Realty Growth	0	0	5	2	3.29
Macerich	1	5	9	1	2.62

CTO Realty Growth currently has a consensus target price of $24.50, indicating a potential upside of 13.74%. Macerich has a consensus target price of $25.88, indicating a potential upside of 8.95%. Given CTO Realty Growth’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe CTO Realty Growth is more favorable than Macerich.

Profitability

This table compares CTO Realty Growth and Macerich’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CTO Realty Growth	32.63%	8.90%	4.05%
Macerich	-16.85%	-6.26%	-1.97%

Risk & Volatility

CTO Realty Growth has a beta of 0.6, suggesting that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Macerich has a beta of 2.07, suggesting that its stock price is 107% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CTO Realty Growth and Macerich”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CTO Realty Growth	$161.10 million	5.01	$10.09 million	$1.36	15.84
Macerich	$1.01 billion	6.69	-$197.15 million	($0.65)	-36.54

CTO Realty Growth has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Macerich. Macerich is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CTO Realty Growth, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

67.2% of CTO Realty Growth shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.4% of Macerich shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.5% of CTO Realty Growth shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Macerich shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

CTO Realty Growth pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.1%. Macerich pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. CTO Realty Growth pays out 111.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Macerich pays out -104.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

CTO Realty Growth beats Macerich on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CTO Realty Growth

CTO Realty Growth, Inc. is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns and operates a portfolio of high-quality, retail-based properties located primarily in higher growth markets in the United States. CTO also externally manages and owns a meaningful interest in Alpine Income Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE: PINE), a publicly traded net lease REIT.

About Macerich

Macerich is a fully integrated, self-managed and self-administered real estate investment trust (REIT). As a leading owner, operator and developer of high-quality retail real estate in densely populated and attractive U.S. markets, Macerich’s portfolio is concentrated in California, the Pacific Northwest, Phoenix/Scottsdale, and the Metro New York to Washington, D.C. corridor. Developing and managing properties that serve as community cornerstones, Macerich currently owns 47 million square feet of real estate consisting primarily of interests in 44 regional town centers. Macerich is firmly dedicated to advancing environmental goals, social good and sound corporate governance. A recognized leader in sustainability, Macerich has achieved a #1 Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) ranking for the North American retail sector for nine consecutive years (2015-2023).