Critical Contrast: Safehold (NYSE:SAFE) vs. Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI)

Safehold (NYSE:SAFE) and Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) are both real estate companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and risk.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Safehold and Crown Castle”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Safehold	$385.55 million	2.70	$114.47 million	$1.62	9.06
Crown Castle	$4.26 billion	7.58	$444.00 million	$1.97	38.55

Crown Castle has higher revenue and earnings than Safehold. Safehold is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Crown Castle, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Safehold has a beta of 1.73, meaning that its share price is 73% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Crown Castle has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

70.4% of Safehold shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.8% of Crown Castle shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.8% of Safehold shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Crown Castle shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Safehold and Crown Castle’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Safehold	27.70%	4.76%	1.62%
Crown Castle	20.71%	-51.60%	3.70%

Dividends

Safehold pays an annual dividend of $0.71 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Crown Castle pays an annual dividend of $4.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.6%. Safehold pays out 43.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Crown Castle pays out 215.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Safehold has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Safehold and Crown Castle, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Safehold	1	7	2	0	2.10
Crown Castle	0	12	7	2	2.52

Safehold currently has a consensus price target of $17.17, indicating a potential upside of 16.99%. Crown Castle has a consensus price target of $95.13, indicating a potential upside of 25.25%. Given Crown Castle’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Crown Castle is more favorable than Safehold.

Summary

Crown Castle beats Safehold on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Safehold

Safehold Inc. (NYSE: SAFE) is revolutionizing real estate ownership by providing a new and better way for owners to unlock the value of the land beneath their buildings. Having created the modern ground lease industry in 2017, Safehold continues to help owners of high quality multifamily, office, industrial, hospitality, student housing, life science and mixed-use properties generate higher returns with less risk. The Company, which is taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT), seeks to deliver safe, growing income and long-term capital appreciation to its shareholders.

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 90,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions across every major U.S. market. This nationwide portfolio of communications infrastructure connects cities and communities to essential data, technology and wireless service – bringing information, ideas and innovations to the people and businesses that need them.