Contrasting Rexford Industrial Realty (NYSE:REXR) and Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND)

Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND) and Rexford Industrial Realty (NYSE:REXR) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Gladstone Land and Rexford Industrial Realty’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gladstone Land	16.45%	2.05%	1.07%
Rexford Industrial Realty	30.40%	3.35%	2.29%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

53.6% of Gladstone Land shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.5% of Rexford Industrial Realty shares are held by institutional investors. 7.2% of Gladstone Land shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Rexford Industrial Realty shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Gladstone Land and Rexford Industrial Realty, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gladstone Land	0	3	1	0	2.25
Rexford Industrial Realty	1	6	3	0	2.20

Gladstone Land currently has a consensus target price of $15.50, suggesting a potential upside of 33.05%. Rexford Industrial Realty has a consensus target price of $51.09, suggesting a potential upside of 27.63%. Given Gladstone Land’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Gladstone Land is more favorable than Rexford Industrial Realty.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Gladstone Land and Rexford Industrial Realty”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gladstone Land	$88.57 million	4.76	$14.56 million	($0.26)	-44.81
Rexford Industrial Realty	$797.83 million	11.16	$238.02 million	$1.23	32.54

Rexford Industrial Realty has higher revenue and earnings than Gladstone Land. Gladstone Land is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Rexford Industrial Realty, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Gladstone Land has a beta of 1.04, meaning that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Rexford Industrial Realty has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Gladstone Land pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Rexford Industrial Realty pays an annual dividend of $1.67 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Gladstone Land pays out -215.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Rexford Industrial Realty pays out 135.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Gladstone Land is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Rexford Industrial Realty beats Gladstone Land on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gladstone Land

Founded in 1997, Gladstone Land is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires and owns farmland and farm-related properties located in major agricultural markets in the U.S. and leases its properties to unrelated third-party farmers. The Company, which reports the aggregate fair value of its farmland holdings on a quarterly basis, currently owns 169 farms, comprised of approximately 116,000 acres in 15 different states and over 45,000 acre-feet of banked water in California, valued at a total of approximately $1.6 billion. Gladstone Land’s farms are predominantly located in regions where its tenants are able to grow fresh produce annual row crops, such as berries and vegetables, which are generally planted and harvested annually. The Company also owns farms growing permanent crops, such as almonds, apples, cherries, figs, lemons, olives, pistachios, and other orchards, as well as blueberry groves and vineyards, which are generally planted every 20-plus years and harvested annually. Approximately 40% of the Company’s fresh produce acreage is either organic or in transition to become organic, and over 10% of its permanent crop acreage falls into this category. The Company may also acquire property related to farming, such as cooling facilities, processing buildings, packaging facilities, and distribution centers. Gladstone Land pays monthly distributions to its stockholders and has paid 129 consecutive monthly cash distributions on its common stock since its initial public offering in January 2013. The Company has increased its common distributions 32 times over the prior 35 quarters, and the current per-share distribution on its common stock is $0.0464 per month, or $0.5568 per year.

About Rexford Industrial Realty

Rexford Industrial creates value by investing in, operating and redeveloping industrial properties throughout infill Southern California, the world's fourth largest industrial market and consistently the highest-demand with lowest-supply major market in the nation. The Company's highly differentiated strategy enables internal and external growth opportunities through its proprietary value creation and asset management capabilities. Rexford Industrial's high-quality, irreplaceable portfolio comprises 371 properties with approximately 45.0 million rentable square feet occupied by a stable and diverse tenant base. Structured as a real estate investment trust (REIT) listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "REXR," Rexford Industrial is an S&P MidCap 400 Index member.