American Assets Trust (NYSE:AAT) versus Site Centers (NYSE:SITC) Head-To-Head Review

Site Centers (NYSE:SITC) and American Assets Trust (NYSE:AAT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability and risk.

Risk & Volatility

Site Centers has a beta of 1.09, suggesting that its stock price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Assets Trust has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Site Centers and American Assets Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Site Centers	1	2	1	0	2.00
American Assets Trust	1	2	0	0	1.67

Site Centers presently has a consensus price target of $10.83, indicating a potential upside of 65.02%. American Assets Trust has a consensus price target of $18.00, indicating a potential downside of 4.13%. Given Site Centers’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Site Centers is more favorable than American Assets Trust.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Site Centers and American Assets Trust”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Site Centers	$271.09 million	1.27	$531.82 million	$0.56	11.72
American Assets Trust	$436.20 million	2.64	$71.37 million	$0.91	20.63

Site Centers has higher earnings, but lower revenue than American Assets Trust. Site Centers is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Assets Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Site Centers and American Assets Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Site Centers	29.19%	8.21%	4.33%
American Assets Trust	12.76%	4.96%	1.89%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

88.7% of Site Centers shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.4% of American Assets Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Site Centers shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 36.8% of American Assets Trust shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Site Centers beats American Assets Trust on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Site Centers

SITE Centers is an owner and manager of open-air shopping centers located in suburban, high household income communities. The Company is a self-administered and self-managed REIT operating as a fully integrated real estate company, and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SITC.

About American Assets Trust

American Assets Trust, Inc. is a full service, vertically integrated and self-administered real estate investment trust ("REIT"), headquartered in San Diego, California. The company has over 55 years of experience in acquiring, improving, developing and managing premier office, retail, and residential properties throughout the United States in some of the nation's most dynamic, high-barrier-to-entry markets primarily in Southern California, Northern California, Washington, Oregon, Texas and Hawaii. The company's office portfolio comprises approximately 4.1 million rentable square feet, and its retail portfolio comprises approximately 3.1 million rentable square feet. In addition, the company owns one mixed-use property (including approximately 94,000 rentable square feet of retail space and a 369-room all-suite hotel) and 2,110 multifamily units. In 2011, the company was formed to succeed to the real estate business of American Assets, Inc., a privately held corporation founded in 1967 and, as such, has significant experience, long-standing relationships and extensive knowledge of its core markets, submarkets and asset classes.