Analyzing CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE) and Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI)

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) and CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability and risk.

Dividends

Crown Castle pays an annual dividend of $6.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.9%. CubeSmart pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Crown Castle pays out 222.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. CubeSmart pays out 117.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. CubeSmart has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Crown Castle and CubeSmart”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Crown Castle	$6.59 billion	5.98	$1.50 billion	$2.82	32.18
CubeSmart	$1.06 billion	9.10	$410.76 million	$1.77	24.18

Crown Castle has higher revenue and earnings than CubeSmart. CubeSmart is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Crown Castle, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Crown Castle has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CubeSmart has a beta of 0.84, suggesting that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

90.8% of Crown Castle shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.6% of CubeSmart shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Crown Castle shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of CubeSmart shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Crown Castle and CubeSmart, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Crown Castle	1	10	3	0	2.14
CubeSmart	1	6	4	0	2.27

Crown Castle presently has a consensus target price of $117.00, suggesting a potential upside of 28.93%. CubeSmart has a consensus target price of $51.36, suggesting a potential upside of 20.01%. Given Crown Castle’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Crown Castle is more favorable than CubeSmart.

Profitability

This table compares Crown Castle and CubeSmart’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Crown Castle	18.59%	20.98%	3.20%
CubeSmart	37.79%	14.33%	6.48%

Summary

CubeSmart beats Crown Castle on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 90,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions across every major U.S. market. This nationwide portfolio of communications infrastructure connects cities and communities to essential data, technology and wireless service – bringing information, ideas and innovations to the people and businesses that need them.

About CubeSmart

CubeSmart is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust. The Company's self-storage properties are designed to offer affordable, easily accessible and, in most locations, climate-controlled storage space for residential and commercial customers. According to the 2023 Self-Storage Almanac, CubeSmart is one of the top three owners and operators of self-storage properties in the United States.