Head to Head Analysis: Hudson Pacific Properties (NYSE:HPP) and COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP)

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) and Hudson Pacific Properties (NYSE:HPP) are both real estate companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, risk and valuation.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

97.6% of Hudson Pacific Properties shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of COPT Defense Properties shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.5% of Hudson Pacific Properties shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares COPT Defense Properties and Hudson Pacific Properties”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
COPT Defense Properties	$763.92 million	5.27	$152.32 million	$1.44	24.64
Hudson Pacific Properties	$831.10 million	0.78	-$561.69 million	($8.85)	-1.34

COPT Defense Properties has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Hudson Pacific Properties. Hudson Pacific Properties is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than COPT Defense Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for COPT Defense Properties and Hudson Pacific Properties, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
COPT Defense Properties	0	3	5	0	2.62
Hudson Pacific Properties	3	6	4	0	2.08

COPT Defense Properties currently has a consensus target price of $37.38, indicating a potential upside of 5.34%. Hudson Pacific Properties has a consensus target price of $15.82, indicating a potential upside of 33.25%. Given Hudson Pacific Properties’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Hudson Pacific Properties is more favorable than COPT Defense Properties.

Profitability

This table compares COPT Defense Properties and Hudson Pacific Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
COPT Defense Properties	20.94%	10.48%	3.64%
Hudson Pacific Properties	-70.04%	-20.76%	-7.73%

Risk and Volatility

COPT Defense Properties has a beta of 0.76, suggesting that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hudson Pacific Properties has a beta of 1.89, suggesting that its stock price is 89% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

COPT Defense Properties beats Hudson Pacific Properties on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About COPT Defense Properties

COPT Defense Properties is a real estate investment trust. It acquires, develops, manages, sells, and leases out office properties and data centers. The firm operates through the following segments: Defense/Information Technology Locations, Regional Office, Wholesale Data Center, and Other. The company was founded on January 22,1988 and is headquartered in Columbia, MD.

About Hudson Pacific Properties

Hudson Pacific Properties (NYSE: HPP) is a real estate investment trust serving dynamic tech and media tenants in global epicenters for these synergistic, converging and secular growth industries. Hudson Pacific's unique and high-barrier tech and media focus leverages a full-service, end-to-end value creation platform forged through deep strategic relationships and niche expertise across identifying, acquiring, transforming and developing properties into world-class amenitized, collaborative and sustainable office and studio space.