Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE:PEB) vs. Easterly Government Properties (NYSE:DEA) Head-To-Head Review

Easterly Government Properties (NYSE:DEA) and Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE:PEB) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

84.7% of Easterly Government Properties shares are held by institutional investors. 8.2% of Easterly Government Properties shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Easterly Government Properties and Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Easterly Government Properties	2	2	1	0	1.80
Pebblebrook Hotel Trust	1	6	0	0	1.86

Easterly Government Properties presently has a consensus target price of $15.10, indicating a potential upside of 17.05%. Pebblebrook Hotel Trust has a consensus target price of $17.28, indicating a potential upside of 16.35%. Given Easterly Government Properties’ higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Easterly Government Properties is more favorable than Pebblebrook Hotel Trust.

Dividends

Easterly Government Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.2%. Pebblebrook Hotel Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Easterly Government Properties pays out 378.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Pebblebrook Hotel Trust pays out -14.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Easterly Government Properties and Pebblebrook Hotel Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Easterly Government Properties	8.91%	1.82%	0.91%
Pebblebrook Hotel Trust	0.43%	0.20%	0.10%

Risk & Volatility

Easterly Government Properties has a beta of 0.67, meaning that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust has a beta of 1.84, meaning that its share price is 84% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Easterly Government Properties and Pebblebrook Hotel Trust’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Easterly Government Properties	$291.14 million	4.14	$31.47 million	$0.28	46.07
Pebblebrook Hotel Trust	$1.39 billion	1.29	-$87.17 million	($0.27)	-55.00

Easterly Government Properties has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Pebblebrook Hotel Trust. Pebblebrook Hotel Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Easterly Government Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Easterly Government Properties beats Pebblebrook Hotel Trust on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Easterly Government Properties

Easterly Government Properties, Inc. (NYSE: DEA) is based in Washington, D.C., and focuses primarily on the acquisition, development and management of Class A commercial properties that are leased to the U.S. Government. Easterly's experienced management team brings specialized insight into the strategy and needs of mission-critical U.S. Government agencies for properties leased to such agencies either directly or through the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA).

About Pebblebrook Hotel Trust

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE: PEB) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) and the largest owner of urban and resort lifestyle hotels and resorts in the United States. The Company owns 47 hotels and resorts, totaling approximately 12,200 guest rooms across 13 urban and resort markets.