Summit Industrial Income REIT (OTCMKTS:SMMCF) vs. American Assets Trust (NYSE:AAT) Financial Analysis

Summit Industrial Income REIT (OTCMKTS:SMMCF) and American Assets Trust (NYSE:AAT) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

0.1% of Summit Industrial Income REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.4% of American Assets Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 37.9% of American Assets Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Summit Industrial Income REIT and American Assets Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Summit Industrial Income REIT	N/A	N/A	N/A
American Assets Trust	4.09%	1.66%	0.62%

Dividends

Summit Industrial Income REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.21 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. American Assets Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.0%. Summit Industrial Income REIT pays out 35.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Assets Trust pays out 469.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. American Assets Trust has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years. American Assets Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Summit Industrial Income REIT and American Assets Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Summit Industrial Income REIT	0	0	0	0	0.00
American Assets Trust	1	2	0	0	1.67

American Assets Trust has a consensus target price of $21.50, suggesting a potential downside of 5.91%. Given American Assets Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe American Assets Trust is more favorable than Summit Industrial Income REIT.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Summit Industrial Income REIT and American Assets Trust”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Summit Industrial Income REIT	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.59	29.50
American Assets Trust	$436.20 million	3.22	$71.37 million	$0.29	78.79

American Assets Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Summit Industrial Income REIT. Summit Industrial Income REIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Assets Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

American Assets Trust beats Summit Industrial Income REIT on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Summit Industrial Income REIT

Summit Industrial Income REIT is an open-ended mutual fund trust, which engages in growing and managing a portfolio of light industrial properties. Its properties are located in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, and New Brunswick. The company was founded on November 24, 1998 and is headquartered in Markham, Canada.

About American Assets Trust

American Assets Trust, Inc. is a full service, vertically integrated and self-administered real estate investment trust ("REIT"), headquartered in San Diego, California. The company has over 55 years of experience in acquiring, improving, developing and managing premier office, retail, and residential properties throughout the United States in some of the nation's most dynamic, high-barrier-to-entry markets primarily in Southern California, Northern California, Washington, Oregon, Texas and Hawaii. The company's office portfolio comprises approximately 4.1 million rentable square feet, and its retail portfolio comprises approximately 3.1 million rentable square feet. In addition, the company owns one mixed-use property (including approximately 94,000 rentable square feet of retail space and a 369-room all-suite hotel) and 2,110 multifamily units. In 2011, the company was formed to succeed to the real estate business of American Assets, Inc., a privately held corporation founded in 1967 and, as such, has significant experience, long-standing relationships and extensive knowledge of its core markets, submarkets and asset classes.