Head to Head Survey: Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT) vs. Bimini Capital Management (OTCMKTS:BMNM)

Bimini Capital Management (OTCMKTS:BMNM) and Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

41.0% of Ashford Hospitality Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 42.7% of Bimini Capital Management shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Ashford Hospitality Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Bimini Capital Management and Ashford Hospitality Trust’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bimini Capital Management	$13.60 million	0.70	-$3.98 million	($0.47)	-2.00
Ashford Hospitality Trust	$1.28 billion	0.03	-$178.49 million	($3.17)	-0.29

Bimini Capital Management has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Ashford Hospitality Trust. Bimini Capital Management is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ashford Hospitality Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Bimini Capital Management and Ashford Hospitality Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bimini Capital Management	0	0	0	0	N/A
Ashford Hospitality Trust	0	1	0	0	2.00

Ashford Hospitality Trust has a consensus price target of $2.50, indicating a potential upside of 167.95%. Given Ashford Hospitality Trust’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Ashford Hospitality Trust is more favorable than Bimini Capital Management.

Risk and Volatility

Bimini Capital Management has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ashford Hospitality Trust has a beta of 2.33, suggesting that its share price is 133% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Bimini Capital Management pays an annual dividend of $0.13 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.8%. Ashford Hospitality Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 25.7%. Bimini Capital Management pays out -27.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ashford Hospitality Trust pays out -7.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Profitability

This table compares Bimini Capital Management and Ashford Hospitality Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bimini Capital Management	-45.47%	-54.34%	-4.32%
Ashford Hospitality Trust	2.25%	-9.74%	0.81%

Summary

Ashford Hospitality Trust beats Bimini Capital Management on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bimini Capital Management

Bimini Capital Management, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty finance company in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Asset Management and Investment Portfolio. The Asset Management segment includes investment advisory services by Bimini Advisors to Orchid Island Capital, Inc. and Royal Palm Capital, LLC. The Investment Portfolio segment engages in investment activities conducted by Royal Palm Capital, LLC. It invests in residential mortgage-backed securities. The company was formerly known as Opteum Inc. and changed its name to Bimini Capital Management, Inc. in September 2007. Bimini Capital Management, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is based in Vero Beach, Florida.

About Ashford Hospitality Trust

Ashford Hospitality Trust is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on investing predominantly in upper upscale, full-service hotels.