Reviewing SL Green Realty (NYSE:SLG) and Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:PECO)

Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:PECO) and SL Green Realty (NYSE:SLG) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

80.7% of Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.0% of SL Green Realty shares are held by institutional investors. 8.0% of Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.1% of SL Green Realty shares are held 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.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. and SL Green Realty’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.	$610.12 million	6.52	$56.85 million	$0.46	70.70
SL Green Realty	$913.71 million	4.02	-$557.30 million	($8.26)	-6.76

Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. has higher earnings, but lower revenue than SL Green Realty. SL Green Realty is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Phillips Edison & Company, Inc., indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. pays an annual dividend of $1.17 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. SL Green Realty pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. pays out 254.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. SL Green Realty pays out -36.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SL Green Realty is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. and SL Green Realty’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.	9.33%	2.21%	1.21%
SL Green Realty	-64.45%	-12.75%	-5.24%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. and SL Green Realty, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.	1	4	3	0	2.25
SL Green Realty	6	5	2	0	1.69

Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. presently has a consensus target price of $37.43, indicating a potential upside of 15.09%. SL Green Realty has a consensus target price of $44.46, indicating a potential downside of 20.35%. Given Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. is more favorable than SL Green Realty.

Volatility & Risk

Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. has a beta of 0.56, suggesting that its stock price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SL Green Realty has a beta of 1.77, suggesting that its stock price is 77% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. beats SL Green Realty on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.

Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. (PECO) is one of the nation's largest owners and operators of omni-channel grocery-anchored shopping centers. Founded in 1991, PECO has generated strong results through its vertically-integrated operating platform and national footprint of well-occupied shopping centers. PECO's centers feature a mix of national and regional retailers providing necessity-based goods and services in fundamentally strong markets throughout the United States. PECO's top grocery anchors include Kroger, Publix, Albertsons and Ahold Delhaize. As of December 31, 2023, PECO managed 301 shopping centers, including 281 wholly-owned centers comprising 32.2 million square feet across 31 states and 20 shopping centers owned in one institutional joint venture. PECO is exclusively focused on creating great omni-channel, grocery-anchored shopping experiences and improving communities, one neighborhood shopping center at a time.

About SL Green Realty

3SL Green Realty Corp., Manhattan’s largest office landlord, is a fully integrated real estate investment trust, or REIT, that is focused primarily on acquiring, managing and maximizing value of Manhattan commercial properties. As of June 30, 2022, SL Green held interests in 64 buildings totaling 34.4 million square feet. This included ownership interests in 26.3 million square feet of Manhattan buildings and 7.2 million square feet securing debt and preferred equity investments.