Critical Comparison: Global Medical REIT (NYSE:GMRE) & Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR)

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) and Global Medical REIT (NYSE:GMRE) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Lamar Advertising and Global Medical REIT, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lamar Advertising	0	3	1	0	2.25
Global Medical REIT	0	0	1	0	3.00

Lamar Advertising currently has a consensus target price of $123.25, indicating a potential downside of 3.32%. Global Medical REIT has a consensus target price of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 3.63%. Given Global Medical REIT’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Global Medical REIT is more favorable than Lamar Advertising.

Volatility & Risk

Lamar Advertising has a beta of 1.52, suggesting that its share price is 52% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Global Medical REIT has a beta of 1.24, suggesting that its share price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Lamar Advertising and Global Medical REIT”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lamar Advertising	$2.16 billion	6.03	$495.76 million	$4.87	26.18
Global Medical REIT	$137.70 million	4.60	$20.61 million	$0.23	41.96

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.8% of Lamar Advertising shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.5% of Global Medical REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.0% of Lamar Advertising shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.2% of Global Medical REIT shares are owned by company 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

Lamar Advertising pays an annual dividend of $5.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Global Medical REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.7%. Lamar Advertising pays out 115.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Global Medical REIT pays out 365.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Profitability

This table compares Lamar Advertising and Global Medical REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lamar Advertising	23.34%	42.18%	7.69%
Global Medical REIT	4.18%	1.09%	0.45%

Summary

Lamar Advertising beats Global Medical REIT on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Global Medical REIT

Global Medical REIT Inc. (GMRE) is a net-lease medical office real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and acquires healthcare facilities and leases those facilities to physician groups and regional and national healthcare systems.