Critical Contrast: National Healthcare Properties (NASDAQ:NHP) & Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT)

National Healthcare Properties (NASDAQ:NHP) and Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPT) are both companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for National Healthcare Properties and Medical Properties Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
National Healthcare Properties	0	5	5	0	2.50
Medical Properties Trust	1	1	0	0	1.50

National Healthcare Properties currently has a consensus target price of $17.13, indicating a potential upside of 15.71%. Medical Properties Trust has a consensus target price of $4.50, indicating a potential upside of 3.21%. Given National Healthcare Properties’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe National Healthcare Properties is more favorable than Medical Properties Trust.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

94.9% of National Healthcare Properties shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of National Healthcare Properties shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Medical Properties Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares National Healthcare Properties and Medical Properties Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
National Healthcare Properties	N/A	N/A	N/A
Medical Properties Trust	-12.59%	-2.70%	-0.84%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares National Healthcare Properties and Medical Properties Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
National Healthcare Properties	$342.12 million	3.15	N/A	N/A	N/A
Medical Properties Trust	$972.02 million	2.68	-$277.05 million	($0.21)	-20.76

National Healthcare Properties has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Medical Properties Trust.

Summary

National Healthcare Properties beats Medical Properties Trust on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Medical Properties Trust

Medical Properties Trust, Inc. is a self-advised real estate investment trust formed to capitalize on the changing trends in healthcare delivery by acquiring and developing net-leased healthcare facilities. MPT’s financing model allows hospitals and other healthcare facilities to unlock the value of their underlying real estate in order to fund facility improvements, technology upgrades, staff additions and new construction. Facilities include acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, and other medical and surgical facilities.