Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) versus Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) Head-To-Head Contrast

Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, risk and dividends.

Dividends

Sunstone Hotel Investors pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners pays out 256.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Sunstone Hotel Investors has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and 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.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

99.4% of Sunstone Hotel Investors shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.9% of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of Sunstone Hotel Investors shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Sunstone Hotel Investors has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a beta of 1.14, indicating that its share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Sunstone Hotel Investors and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sunstone Hotel Investors	2	4	2	0	2.00
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	1	2	4	2	2.78

Sunstone Hotel Investors currently has a consensus price target of $8.93, indicating a potential downside of 8.00%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a consensus price target of $40.43, indicating a potential upside of 13.09%. Given Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is more favorable than Sunstone Hotel Investors.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sunstone Hotel Investors and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sunstone Hotel Investors	$935.00 million	1.97	$43.26 million	N/A	N/A
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	$22.24 billion	0.74	$351.00 million	$0.67	53.36

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has higher revenue and earnings than Sunstone Hotel Investors.

Profitability

This table compares Sunstone Hotel Investors and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sunstone Hotel Investors	2.15%	1.12%	0.65%
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	1.54%	1.15%	0.31%

Summary

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners beats Sunstone Hotel Investors on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sunstone Hotel Investors

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. is a lodging real estate investment trust ("REIT") that as of the date of this release owns 14 hotels comprised of 6,675 rooms, the majority of which are operated under nationally recognized brands. Sunstone's strategy is to create long-term stakeholder value through the acquisition, active ownership, and disposition of well-located hotel and resort real estate.

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.