Analyzing Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT) & Medalist Diversified REIT (NASDAQ:MDRR)

Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT) and Medalist Diversified REIT (NASDAQ:MDRR) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, valuation, risk, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Risk & Volatility

Ashford Hospitality Trust has a beta of 2.23, meaning that its stock price is 123% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medalist Diversified REIT has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Ashford Hospitality Trust and Medalist Diversified REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ashford Hospitality Trust	-13.13%	N/A	-4.85%
Medalist Diversified REIT	-44.51%	-20.28%	-3.68%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ashford Hospitality Trust and Medalist Diversified REIT’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ashford Hospitality Trust	$1.37 billion	0.03	-$178.49 million	($5.65)	-0.21
Medalist Diversified REIT	$10.27 million	1.22	-$4.57 million	($1.59)	-3.52

Medalist Diversified REIT has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Ashford Hospitality Trust. Medalist Diversified REIT 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.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

41.0% of Ashford Hospitality Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 17.4% of Medalist Diversified REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Ashford Hospitality Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 16.9% of Medalist Diversified REIT shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Ashford Hospitality Trust and Medalist Diversified REIT, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ashford Hospitality Trust	0	1	0	0	2.00
Medalist Diversified REIT	0	0	0	0	N/A

Ashford Hospitality Trust presently has a consensus target price of $2.50, indicating a potential upside of 108.33%. Given Ashford Hospitality Trust’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Ashford Hospitality Trust is more favorable than Medalist Diversified REIT.

Summary

Ashford Hospitality Trust beats Medalist Diversified REIT on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ashford Hospitality Trust

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

About Medalist Diversified REIT

Medalist Diversified REIT Inc. is a Virginia-based real estate investment trust that specializes in acquiring, owning and managing commercial real estate in the Southeast region of the U.S. The Company's strategy is to focus on commercial real estate which is expected to provide an attractive balance of risk and returns. Medalist utilizes a rigorous, consistent and replicable process for sourcing and conducting due diligence of acquisitions.