Comparing Retail Opportunity Investments (NASDAQ:ROIC) and Sabra Health Care REIT (NASDAQ:SBRA)

Sabra Health Care REIT (NASDAQ:SBRA) and Retail Opportunity Investments (NASDAQ:ROIC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.4% of Sabra Health Care REIT shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.2% of Retail Opportunity Investments shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Sabra Health Care REIT shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of Retail Opportunity Investments shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Sabra Health Care REIT pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.7%. Retail Opportunity Investments pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Sabra Health Care REIT pays out 2,400.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Retail Opportunity Investments pays out 222.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Sabra Health Care REIT and Retail Opportunity Investments, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sabra Health Care REIT	0	5	6	0	2.55
Retail Opportunity Investments	1	1	2	0	2.25

Sabra Health Care REIT presently has a consensus target price of $15.35, suggesting a potential upside of 11.37%. Retail Opportunity Investments has a consensus target price of $14.75, suggesting a potential upside of 18.95%. Given Retail Opportunity Investments’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Retail Opportunity Investments is more favorable than Sabra Health Care REIT.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sabra Health Care REIT and Retail Opportunity Investments’ top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sabra Health Care REIT	$647.51 million	4.93	$13.76 million	$0.05	275.60
Retail Opportunity Investments	$327.73 million	4.82	$34.53 million	$0.27	45.93

Retail Opportunity Investments has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Sabra Health Care REIT. Retail Opportunity Investments is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sabra Health Care REIT, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Sabra Health Care REIT has a beta of 1.16, meaning that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Retail Opportunity Investments has a beta of 1.42, meaning that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Sabra Health Care REIT and Retail Opportunity Investments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sabra Health Care REIT	2.12%	0.47%	0.25%
Retail Opportunity Investments	10.54%	2.53%	1.14%

Summary

Retail Opportunity Investments beats Sabra Health Care REIT on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sabra Health Care REIT

As of September 30, 2023, Sabra's investment portfolio included 377 real estate properties held for investment (consisting of (i) 240 Skilled Nursing/Transitional Care facilities, (ii) 43 senior housing communities (Senior Housing – Leased), (iii) 61 senior housing communities operated by third-party property managers pursuant to property management agreements (Senior Housing – Managed), (iv) 18 Behavioral Health facilities and (v) 15 Specialty Hospitals and Other facilities), 12 investments in loans receivable (consisting of two mortgage loans and 10 other loans), five preferred equity investments and two investments in unconsolidated joint ventures. As of September 30, 2023, Sabra's real estate properties held for investment included 37,606 beds/units, spread across the United States and Canada.

About Retail Opportunity Investments

Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. (Nasdaq: ROIC), is a fully integrated, self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) that specializes in the acquisition, ownership and management of grocery-anchored shopping centers located in densely populated, metropolitan markets across the West Coast. As of December 31, 2023, ROIC owned 94 shopping centers encompassing approximately 10.6 million square feet. ROIC is the largest publicly-traded, grocery-anchored shopping center REIT focused exclusively on the West Coast. ROIC is a member of the S&P SmallCap 600 Index and has investment-grade corporate debt ratings from Moody's Investor Services, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings, Inc.