Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust (NASDAQ:WHLR) vs. American Tower (NYSE:AMT) Head-To-Head Contrast

Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust (NASDAQ:WHLR) and American Tower (NYSE:AMT) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust and American Tower’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust	-10.98%	N/A	-1.70%
American Tower	21.95%	23.06%	3.77%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust and American Tower, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust	0	0	0	0	N/A
American Tower	0	2	11	1	2.93

American Tower has a consensus price target of $234.00, suggesting a potential upside of 0.66%. Given American Tower’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe American Tower is more favorable than Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust and American Tower”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust	$103.61 million	0.04	-$4.69 million	($4,458.03)	0.00
American Tower	$11.14 billion	9.74	$1.48 billion	$4.42	52.59

American Tower has higher revenue and earnings than Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust. Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Tower, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust has a beta of 1.53, meaning that its share price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Tower has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 20.8%. American Tower pays an annual dividend of $6.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust pays out 0.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Tower pays out 146.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

35.3% of Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.7% of American Tower shares are owned by institutional investors. 40.6% of Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of American Tower shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

American Tower beats Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust

Headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc. is a fully integrated, self-managed commercial real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on owning and operating income-producing retail properties with a primary focus on grocery-anchored centers.

About American Tower

American Tower, one of the largest global REITs, is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a portfolio of over 224,000 communications sites and a highly interconnected footprint of U.S. data center facilities.