Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE:ESRT) & Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) Head to Head Contrast

Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE:ESRT) and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Empire State Realty Trust and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Empire State Realty Trust	6.06%	2.59%	1.11%
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	4.40%	3.22%	0.87%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Empire State Realty Trust and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Empire State Realty Trust	$768.27 million	1.23	$47.60 million	$0.26	21.27
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	$23.10 billion	0.75	$771.00 million	$0.90	41.82

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has higher revenue and earnings than Empire State Realty Trust. Empire State Realty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Empire State Realty Trust and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Empire State Realty Trust	2	1	1	0	1.75
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	0	3	6	0	2.67

Empire State Realty Trust currently has a consensus target price of $7.58, suggesting a potential upside of 36.98%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a consensus target price of $42.13, suggesting a potential upside of 11.92%. Given Empire State Realty Trust’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Empire State Realty Trust is more favorable than Brookfield Infrastructure Partners.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

67.1% of Empire State Realty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.9% of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners shares are held by institutional investors. 14.6% of Empire State Realty Trust shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Empire State Realty Trust has a beta of 1.36, suggesting that its stock price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a beta of 1.1, suggesting that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Empire State Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners pays an annual dividend of $1.82 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Empire State Realty Trust pays out 53.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners pays out 202.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has increased its dividend for 18 consecutive years. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners beats Empire State Realty Trust on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Empire State Realty Trust

Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: ESRT) is a NYC-focused REIT that owns and operates a portfolio of modernized, amenitized, and well-located office, retail, and multifamily assets. The company is the recognized leader in energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality. ESRT’s flagship Empire State Building – the “World’s Most Famous Building” – includes its Observatory, Tripadvisor’s 2023 Travelers’ Choice Awards: Best of the Best the #1 attraction in the US for two consecutive years. As of September 30, 2023, ESRT’s portfolio is comprised of approximately 8.6 million rentable square feet of office space, 0.7 million rentable square feet of retail space and 727 residential units across three multifamily properties.

About Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. owns and operates utilities, transport, midstream, and data businesses in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company's Utilities segment operates approximately 2,900 km of electricity transmission lines; 4,200 km of natural gas pipelines; 8.1 million electricity and natural gas connections; and 0.6 million long-term contracted sub-metering services. This segment also offers heating, cooling, and energy solutions; gas distribution; water heaters; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioner rental, as well as other home services. Its Transport segment offers transportation, storage, and handling services for merchandise goods, commodities, and passengers through a network of approximately 22,000 km of track; 5,500 km of track network; 9,800 km of rail; and 3,300 km of motorways. The company's Midstream segment offers natural gas transmission, gathering and processing, and storage services through approximately 15,000 km of natural gas transmission pipelines; 570 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage; 17 natural gas processing plants; and 10,600 km of gas gathering pipelines, as well as 525,000 tonnes polypropylene production capacity. Its Data segment operates approximately 228,000 operational telecom towers; approximately 54,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables; approximately 1 million fiber-to-the-premise connections; two semiconductor manufacturing facilities; and 70 distributed antenna systems, as well as 135 data centers and 750 megawatts of critical load capacity and an additional approximate 670 megawatts of contracted capacity. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. operates as a subsidiary of Brookfield Corporation.