Head to Head Analysis: St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) and Medalist Diversified REIT (NASDAQ:MDRR)

St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) and Medalist Diversified REIT (NASDAQ:MDRR) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and dividends.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

86.7% of St. Joe shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 17.4% of Medalist Diversified REIT shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of St. Joe shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 77.6% of Medalist Diversified REIT shares are held 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.

Dividends

St. Joe pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Medalist Diversified REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.27 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. St. Joe pays out 29.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Medalist Diversified REIT pays out 7.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. St. Joe has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years and Medalist Diversified REIT has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Medalist Diversified REIT is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares St. Joe and Medalist Diversified REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
St. Joe	22.45%	15.90%	8.09%
Medalist Diversified REIT	80.24%	-15.18%	-6.46%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares St. Joe and Medalist Diversified REIT”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
St. Joe	$513.20 million	7.33	$115.63 million	$2.14	30.87
Medalist Diversified REIT	$10.40 million	1.91	-$2.39 million	$3.83	3.19

St. Joe has higher revenue and earnings than Medalist Diversified REIT. Medalist Diversified REIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than St. Joe, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for St. Joe and Medalist Diversified REIT, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
St. Joe	0	0	1	0	3.00
Medalist Diversified REIT	0	1	0	0	2.00

Volatility and Risk

St. Joe has a beta of 1.29, meaning that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medalist Diversified REIT has a beta of 0.57, meaning that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

St. Joe beats Medalist Diversified REIT on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About St. Joe

The St. Joe Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate development, asset management, and operating company in Northwest Florida. It operates through three segments: Residential, Hospitality, and Commercial. The Residential segment engages in the development of communities into homesites for sale to homebuilders and on a limited basis to retail customers. This segment primarily sells developed homesites, completed homes, parcels of entitled or undeveloped land or homesites, and a homesite residual on homebuilder, as well as offers title insurance and marketing services. The Hospitality segment owns and operates a private membership club, golf courses, beach clubs, retail outlets, marinas, and other entertainment assets. This segment also engages in the hotel, food and beverage, and gulf-front vacation rental operations, as well as provides management services. The Commercial segment engages in leasing of commercial property, multi-family, a senior living community, and other assets. This segment is also involved in the planning, development, entitlement, management, and sale of commercial and rural land holdings for retail, office, hotel, senior living, multi-family, self-storage, and industrial uses; and grows and sells pulpwood, sawtimber, and other forest products. The company was incorporated in 1936 and is based in Panama City Beach, Florida.

About Medalist Diversified REIT

Medalist Diversified REIT Inc. is a Virginia-based real estate investment trust that specializes in acquiring, owning and managing commercial real estate in the Southeast region of the U.S. The Company's strategy is to focus on commercial real estate which is expected to provide an attractive balance of risk and returns. Medalist utilizes a rigorous, consistent and replicable process for sourcing and conducting due diligence of acquisitions.