Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) and Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust (OTCMKTS:DRETF) Financial Analysis

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) and Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust (OTCMKTS:DRETF) are both real estate companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Highwoods Properties and Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Highwoods Properties	0	7	1	0	2.12
Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust	0	3	1	0	2.25

Highwoods Properties currently has a consensus price target of $31.67, suggesting a potential downside of 0.62%. Given Highwoods Properties’ higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Highwoods Properties is more favorable than Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust.

Profitability

This table compares Highwoods Properties and Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Highwoods Properties	20.74%	7.06%	2.72%
Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A

Institutional and Insider Ownership

96.3% of Highwoods Properties shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.9% of Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Highwoods Properties shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Highwoods Properties pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.3%. Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust pays an annual dividend of $2.05 per share and has a dividend yield of 15.3%. Highwoods Properties pays out 131.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust pays out 99.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Highwoods Properties and Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Highwoods Properties	$835.54 million	4.21	$159.61 million	$1.52	20.96
Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A	$2.06	6.53

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

Summary

Highwoods Properties beats Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Highwoods Properties

Highwoods Properties, Inc., headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded (NYSE:HIW), fully-integrated office real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa. Highwoods is in the work-placemaking business. We believe that by creating environments and experiences where the best and brightest can achieve together what they cannot apart, we can deliver greater value to our customers, their teammates and, in turn, our stakeholders.

About Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust

Dream Office REIT is an unincorporated, open-ended real estate investment trust. Dream Office REIT is a premier office landlord in downtown Toronto with over 3.5 million square feet owned and managed. We have carefully curated an investment portfolio of high-quality assets in irreplaceable locations in one of the finest office markets in the world.