Critical Review: Americold Realty Trust (NYSE:COLD) & Industrial Logistics Properties Trust (NASDAQ:ILPT)

Americold Realty Trust (NYSE:COLD) and Industrial Logistics Properties Trust (NASDAQ:ILPT) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Americold Realty Trust and Industrial Logistics Properties Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Americold Realty Trust	2	9	5	0	2.19
Industrial Logistics Properties Trust	1	0	1	1	2.67

Americold Realty Trust currently has a consensus price target of $15.75, indicating a potential upside of 13.03%. Industrial Logistics Properties Trust has a consensus price target of $11.50, indicating a potential upside of 62.43%. Given Industrial Logistics Properties Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Industrial Logistics Properties Trust is more favorable than Americold Realty Trust.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

98.1% of Americold Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.1% of Industrial Logistics Properties Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Americold Realty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of Industrial Logistics Properties Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Americold Realty Trust has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Industrial Logistics Properties Trust has a beta of 2.54, indicating that its share price is 154% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Americold Realty Trust and Industrial Logistics Properties Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Americold Realty Trust	-17.44%	-16.14%	-5.68%
Industrial Logistics Properties Trust	-10.37%	-5.34%	-0.91%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Americold Realty Trust and Industrial Logistics Properties Trust”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Americold Realty Trust	$2.61 billion	1.52	-$114.55 million	($1.59)	-8.76
Industrial Logistics Properties Trust	$455.39 million	1.04	-$66.19 million	($0.72)	-9.83

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

Dividends

Americold Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.6%. Industrial Logistics Properties Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.6%. Americold Realty Trust pays out -57.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Industrial Logistics Properties Trust pays out -55.6% 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. Americold Realty Trust has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Americold Realty Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Industrial Logistics Properties Trust beats Americold Realty Trust on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Americold Realty Trust

Americold Realty Trust, Inc. is a real estate investment trust, which focuses on the ownership, operation, development, and acquisition of temperature-controlled warehouses. It operates through the following segments: Warehouse, Third-Party Managed, Transportation, and Other. The Warehouse segment collects rent and storage fees from customers to store frozen and perishable food and other products within the firm’s real estate portfolio. The Third-Party Managed segment manages warehouses on behalf of third parties and provides warehouse management services to food retailers and manufacturers in customer-owned facilities. The Transportation segment is involved in brokering and managing transportation of frozen and perishable food and other products. The Other segment includes ownership in a limestone quarry in Carthage, Missouri. The company was founded in 1931 and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

About Industrial Logistics Properties Trust

Industrial Logistics Properties Trust (Nasdaq: ILPT) is a real estate investment trust, or REIT, focused on owning and leasing high quality distribution and logistics properties. As of December 31, 2023, ILPT's portfolio consisted of 411 properties containing approximately 60 million rentable square feet located in 39 states. Approximately 77% of ILPT's annualized rental revenues as of December 31, 2023 are derived from investment grade tenants, tenants that are subsidiaries of investment grade rated entities or Hawaii land leases. ILPT is managed by The RMR Group (Nasdaq: RMR), a leading U.S. alternative asset management company with over $41 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2023 and more than 35 years of institutional experience in buying, selling, financing and operating commercial real estate. ILPT is headquartered in Newton, MA.