Contrasting Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) and Altarea SCA (OTCMKTS:ATRRF)

Altarea SCA (OTCMKTS:ATRRF) and Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) are both real estate companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Altarea SCA and Essex Property Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Altarea SCA	0	0	0	0	0.00
Essex Property Trust	1	10	11	1	2.52

Essex Property Trust has a consensus target price of $303.99, suggesting a potential upside of 7.36%. Given Essex Property Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Essex Property Trust is more favorable than Altarea SCA.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Altarea SCA and Essex Property Trust”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Altarea SCA	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Essex Property Trust	$1.89 billion	9.64	$669.67 million	$6.43	44.03

Essex Property Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Altarea SCA.

Profitability

This table compares Altarea SCA and Essex Property Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Altarea SCA	N/A	N/A	N/A
Essex Property Trust	21.48%	7.33%	3.16%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

96.5% of Essex Property Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 3.5% of Essex Property Trust 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.

Summary

Essex Property Trust beats Altarea SCA on 10 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Altarea SCA

Altarea is the French leader in low-carbon urban transformation, with the most comprehensive real estate offering to serve the city and its users. In each of its activities, the Group has all the expertise and recognised brands needed to design, develop, market and manage tailor-made real estate products. Altarea is listed in compartment A of Euronext Paris.

About Essex Property Trust

Essex Property Trust, Inc., an S&P 500 company, is a fully integrated real estate investment trust (REIT) that acquires, develops, redevelops, and manages multifamily residential properties in selected West Coast markets. Essex currently has ownership interests in 252 apartment communities comprising approximately 62,000 apartment homes with an additional property in active development.