Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) & COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) Critical Review

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) and COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Dividends

Crown Castle pays an annual dividend of $4.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. COPT Defense Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Crown Castle pays out -40.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. COPT Defense Properties pays out 91.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Crown Castle is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Volatility & Risk

Crown Castle has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, COPT Defense Properties has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Crown Castle and COPT Defense Properties”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Crown Castle	$6.42 billion	6.00	-$3.90 billion	($10.63)	-8.33
COPT Defense Properties	$753.27 million	4.18	$138.93 million	$1.33	20.90

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

90.8% of Crown Castle shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Crown Castle shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of COPT Defense Properties 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.

Profitability

This table compares Crown Castle and COPT Defense Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Crown Castle	-95.37%	-619.62%	-12.35%
COPT Defense Properties	19.99%	9.71%	3.50%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Crown Castle and COPT Defense Properties, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Crown Castle	1	7	9	3	2.70
COPT Defense Properties	0	2	5	0	2.71

Crown Castle currently has a consensus price target of $111.35, suggesting a potential upside of 25.81%. COPT Defense Properties has a consensus price target of $33.14, suggesting a potential upside of 19.22%. Given Crown Castle’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Crown Castle is more favorable than COPT Defense Properties.

Summary

Crown Castle beats COPT Defense Properties on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About COPT Defense Properties

COPT Defense Properties is a real estate investment trust. It acquires, develops, manages, sells, and leases out office properties and data centers. The firm operates through the following segments: Defense/Information Technology Locations, Regional Office, Wholesale Data Center, and Other. The company was founded on January 22,1988 and is headquartered in Columbia, MD.