Reviewing Elme Communities (NYSE:ELME) and Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR)

Elme Communities (NYSE:ELME) and Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Elme Communities and Lamar Advertising, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Elme Communities	0	2	1	0	2.33
Lamar Advertising	0	3	1	0	2.25

Elme Communities presently has a consensus price target of $16.00, suggesting a potential downside of 9.40%. Lamar Advertising has a consensus price target of $123.25, suggesting a potential downside of 2.01%. Given Lamar Advertising’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Lamar Advertising is more favorable than Elme Communities.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Elme Communities and Lamar Advertising’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Elme Communities	$227.91 million	6.82	-$52.98 million	($0.61)	-28.95
Lamar Advertising	$2.16 billion	5.95	$495.76 million	$4.87	25.83

Lamar Advertising has higher revenue and earnings than Elme Communities. Elme Communities is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lamar Advertising, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Elme Communities and Lamar Advertising’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Elme Communities	-22.90%	-4.70%	-2.85%
Lamar Advertising	23.29%	41.86%	7.61%

Dividends

Elme Communities pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Lamar Advertising pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Elme Communities pays out -118.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Lamar Advertising pays out 106.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Risk and Volatility

Elme Communities has a beta of 0.89, indicating that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lamar Advertising has a beta of 1.52, indicating that its share price is 52% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

87.9% of Elme Communities shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.8% of Lamar Advertising shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Elme Communities shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.0% of Lamar Advertising shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Lamar Advertising beats Elme Communities on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Elme Communities

Elme Communities is committed to elevating what home can be for middle-income renters by providing a higher level of quality, service, and experience. The Company is a multifamily real estate investment trust that owns and operates approximately 9,400 apartment homes in the Washington, DC metro and the Atlanta metro regions, and owns approximately 300,000 square feet of commercial space. Focused on providing quality, affordable homes to a deep, solid, and underserved base of mid-market demand, Elme Communities is building long-term value for shareholders.

About Lamar Advertising

Lamar Advertising Company operates as an outdoor advertising company in the United States and Canada. The company owns and operates billboards, logo signs, and transit advertising displays, as well as rents space for advertising on billboards, buses, shelters, benches, logo plates, and in airport terminals. Lamar Advertising Company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.