Reviewing Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) and Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT)

Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) and Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

Public Storage has a beta of 0.54, meaning that its share price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Franklin BSP Realty Trust has a beta of 1.43, meaning that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Public Storage and Franklin BSP Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Public Storage	45.34%	35.31%	10.96%
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	55.02%	14.57%	3.29%

Dividends

Public Storage pays an annual dividend of $12.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Franklin BSP Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.0%. Public Storage pays out 108.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Franklin BSP Realty Trust pays out 100.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Public Storage has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Franklin BSP Realty Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Public Storage and Franklin BSP Realty Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Public Storage	1	4	6	1	2.58
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	0	0	4	0	3.00

Public Storage presently has a consensus target price of $302.50, suggesting a potential upside of 7.91%. Franklin BSP Realty Trust has a consensus target price of $14.63, suggesting a potential upside of 13.20%. Given Franklin BSP Realty Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Franklin BSP Realty Trust is more favorable than Public Storage.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

78.8% of Public Storage shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 59.9% of Franklin BSP Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.1% of Public Storage shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Franklin BSP Realty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Public Storage and Franklin BSP Realty Trust’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Public Storage	$4.52 billion	10.90	$2.15 billion	$11.06	25.35
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	$569.53 million	1.86	$145.21 million	$1.41	9.16

Public Storage has higher revenue and earnings than Franklin BSP Realty Trust. Franklin BSP Realty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Public Storage, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Public Storage beats Franklin BSP Realty Trust on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Public Storage

Public Storage, a member of the S&P 500 and FT Global 500, is a REIT that primarily acquires, develops, owns, and operates self-storage facilities. At December 31, 2023, we had: (i) interests in 3,044 self-storage facilities located in 40 states with approximately 218 million net rentable square feet in the United States and (ii) a 35% common equity interest in Shurgard Self Storage Limited (Euronext Brussels: SHUR), which owned 275 self-storage facilities located in seven Western European nations with approximately 15 million net rentable square feet operated under the Shurgard brand. Our headquarters are located in Glendale, California.

About Franklin BSP Realty Trust

Benefit Street Partners operates as a self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). BSP earns income from investing in a leveraged portfolio of residential mortgage pass-through securities consisting almost exclusively of adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) securities issued and guaranteed by government-sponsored enterprises, either Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) or Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (together, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs)), or by an agency of the federal government, Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae). BSP’s investment strategy focuses on managing a portfolio of residential mortgage investments consisting almost exclusively of ARM Agency Securities. As of December 31, 2012, the Company’s securities consisted of Agency Securities classified as available-for-sale and Residential mortgage securities classified as held-to-maturity.