Comparing Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT) and Piedmont Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM)

Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT) and Piedmont Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ashford Hospitality Trust and Piedmont Realty Trust”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ashford Hospitality Trust	$1.10 billion	0.02	-$179.84 million	($41.59)	-0.08
Piedmont Realty Trust	$564.99 million	2.04	-$83.62 million	($0.70)	-13.18

Piedmont Realty Trust has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Ashford Hospitality Trust. Piedmont Realty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ashford Hospitality Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Ashford Hospitality Trust and Piedmont Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ashford Hospitality Trust	-20.43%	N/A	-7.77%
Piedmont Realty Trust	-15.28%	-5.70%	-2.15%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Ashford Hospitality Trust and Piedmont Realty Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ashford Hospitality Trust	1	1	0	0	1.50
Piedmont Realty Trust	1	0	1	0	2.00

Piedmont Realty Trust has a consensus price target of $11.00, indicating a potential upside of 19.24%. Given Piedmont Realty Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Piedmont Realty Trust is more favorable than Ashford Hospitality Trust.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

41.0% of Ashford Hospitality Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.5% of Piedmont Realty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Ashford Hospitality Trust shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Piedmont Realty Trust shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Ashford Hospitality Trust has a beta of 1.72, indicating that its share price is 72% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Piedmont Realty Trust has a beta of 1.38, indicating that its share price is 38% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Piedmont Realty Trust beats Ashford Hospitality Trust on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ashford Hospitality Trust

Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc., together with its subsidiaries (Ashford Trust), is a real estate investment trust (REIT). While our portfolio currently consists of upscale hotels and upper upscale full-service hotels, our investment strategy is predominantly focused on investing in upper upscale full-service hotels in the United States that have revenue per available room (RevPAR) generally less than twice the U.S. national average, and in all methods including direct real estate, equity, and debt. We currently anticipate future investments will predominantly be in upper upscale hotels. We own our lodging investments and conduct our business through Ashford Hospitality Limited Partnership (Ashford Trust OP), our operating partnership. Ashford OP General Partner LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ashford Trust, serves as the sole general partner of our operating partnership.

About Piedmont Realty Trust

Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (also referred to herein as "Piedmont" or the "Company") (NYSE: PDM) is an owner, manager, developer, redeveloper and operator of high-quality, Class A office properties located primarily in major U.S. Sunbelt markets. The Company is a fully-integrated, self-managed real estate investment trust ("REIT") with local management offices in each of its markets and is investment-grade rated by Standard & Poor's and Moody's. The Company was designated an Energy Star Partner of the Year for 2021, 2022 and 2023, and it was the only office REIT headquartered in the Southeast to receive those designations. Approximately 85% of the Company's square footage is Energy Star certified and nearly 70% is LEED certified. Piedmont is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.