Contrasting Medical Properties Trust (MPT) and Its Peers

Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT) is one of 40 publicly-traded companies in the “Healthcare REITs” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Medical Properties Trust to related companies based on the strength of its dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, profitability, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Medical Properties Trust and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medical Properties Trust	3	1	0	0	1.25
Medical Properties Trust Competitors	425	2012	1999	86	2.39

Medical Properties Trust presently has a consensus target price of $2.68, suggesting a potential upside of 64.12%. As a group, “Healthcare REITs” companies have a potential upside of 11.88%. Given Medical Properties Trust’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Medical Properties Trust is more favorable than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medical Properties Trust	24.14%	5.45%	1.69%
Medical Properties Trust Competitors	26.19%	6.15%	3.48%

Volatility & Risk

Medical Properties Trust has a beta of 1.5, suggesting that its share price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medical Properties Trust’s competitors have a beta of 0.85, suggesting that their average share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Medical Properties Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 22.0%. Medical Properties Trust pays out 87.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Healthcare REITs” companies pay a dividend yield of 4.1% and pay out 121.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Medical Properties Trust is clearly a better dividend stock than its competitors, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

71.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.4% of shares of all “Healthcare REITs” companies are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of shares of all “Healthcare REITs” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Medical Properties Trust and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Medical Properties Trust	$972.02 million	-$277.05 million	3.99
Medical Properties Trust Competitors	$1.28 billion	$1.61 million	-1.44

Medical Properties Trust’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Medical Properties Trust. Medical Properties Trust is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Medical Properties Trust competitors beat Medical Properties Trust on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

Medical Properties Trust Company Profile

Medical Properties Trust is a real estate investment trust that owns and invests in healthcare facilities, with a primary focus on hospitals. The company leases its properties to healthcare operators and may provide financing related to the acquisition or development of medical facilities. Founded in 2003, Medical Properties Trust has built a portfolio of properties serving acute-care, behavioral health, rehabilitation and other healthcare needs. Its investments have included facilities in the United States and international markets.