Critical Review: Artis Real Estate Investment Trust (OTCMKTS:ARESF) vs. Essential Properties Realty Trust (NYSE:EPRT)

Artis Real Estate Investment Trust (OTCMKTS:ARESF) and Essential Properties Realty Trust (NYSE:EPRT) are both real estate companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Artis Real Estate Investment Trust and Essential Properties Realty Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Artis Real Estate Investment Trust	0	0	0	0	N/A
Essential Properties Realty Trust	0	0	5	0	3.00

Artis Real Estate Investment Trust presently has a consensus target price of $11.94, suggesting a potential upside of 142.63%. Essential Properties Realty Trust has a consensus target price of $26.66, suggesting a potential upside of 11.77%. Given Artis Real Estate Investment Trust’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Artis Real Estate Investment Trust is more favorable than Essential Properties Realty Trust.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Artis Real Estate Investment Trust and Essential Properties Realty Trust’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Artis Real Estate Investment Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.96	5.15
Essential Properties Realty Trust	$286.51 million	12.99	$134.13 million	$1.15	20.74

Essential Properties Realty Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Artis Real Estate Investment Trust. Artis Real Estate Investment Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Essential Properties Realty Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

19.7% of Artis Real Estate Investment Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.0% of Essential Properties Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of Essential Properties Realty Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Artis Real Estate Investment Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.81 per share and has a dividend yield of 16.5%. Essential Properties Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Artis Real Estate Investment Trust pays out 84.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Essential Properties Realty Trust pays out 97.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Essential Properties Realty Trust has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Artis Real Estate Investment Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Artis Real Estate Investment Trust and Essential Properties Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Artis Real Estate Investment Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A
Essential Properties Realty Trust	53.14%	6.42%	4.11%

Summary

Essential Properties Realty Trust beats Artis Real Estate Investment Trust on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Artis Real Estate Investment Trust

Artis is a diversified Canadian real estate investment trust with a portfolio of industrial, office and retail properties in Canada and the United States. Artis's vision is to build a best-in-class asset management and investment platform focused on growing net asset value per unit and distributions for investors through value investing in real estate.

About Essential Properties Realty Trust

Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc., a real estate company, acquires, owns, and manages single-tenant properties in the United States. The company leases its properties to middle-market companies, such as restaurants, car washes, automotive services, medical and dental services, convenience stores, equipment rental, entertainment, early childhood education, grocery, and health and fitness on a long-term basis. As of December 31, 2021, it had a portfolio of 1, 451 properties. The company qualifies as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes. It generally would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey.