Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT) vs. Rayonier (NYSE:RYN) Critical Comparison

Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT) and Rayonier (NYSE:RYN) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Volatility and Risk

Ashford Hospitality Trust has a beta of 2.35, suggesting that its stock price is 135% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Rayonier has a beta of 1.04, suggesting that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Ashford Hospitality Trust and Rayonier’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ashford Hospitality Trust	2.25%	-10.52%	0.82%
Rayonier	14.78%	3.00%	1.53%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Ashford Hospitality Trust and Rayonier, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ashford Hospitality Trust	0	1	0	0	2.00
Rayonier	0	2	0	0	2.00

Ashford Hospitality Trust currently has a consensus price target of $2.50, suggesting a potential upside of 233.33%. Rayonier has a consensus price target of $32.50, suggesting a potential upside of 1.09%. Given Ashford Hospitality Trust’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Ashford Hospitality Trust is more favorable than Rayonier.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

41.0% of Ashford Hospitality Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.1% of Rayonier shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Ashford Hospitality Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Rayonier shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Ashford Hospitality Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 32.0%. Rayonier pays an annual dividend of $1.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Ashford Hospitality Trust pays out -7.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Rayonier pays out 101.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ashford Hospitality Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ashford Hospitality Trust and Rayonier”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ashford Hospitality Trust	$1.28 billion	0.02	-$178.49 million	($3.17)	-0.24
Rayonier	$1.06 billion	4.53	$173.49 million	$1.12	28.71

Rayonier has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Ashford Hospitality Trust. Ashford Hospitality Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Rayonier, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Rayonier beats Ashford Hospitality Trust on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ashford Hospitality Trust

Ashford Hospitality Trust is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on investing predominantly in upper upscale, full-service hotels.

About Rayonier

Rayonier is a leading timberland real estate investment trust with assets located in some of the most productive softwood timber growing regions in the United States and New Zealand. As of December 31, 2023, Rayonier owned or leased under long-term agreements approximately 2.7 million acres of timberlands located in the U.S. South (1.85 million acres), U.S. Pacific Northwest (418,000 acres) and New Zealand (421,000 acres).