Lineage (NASDAQ:LINE) and Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) Critical Contrast

Lineage (NASDAQ:LINE) and Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation, risk and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Lineage and Highwoods Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lineage	-12.18%	-9.89%	-3.51%
Highwoods Properties	12.37%	4.33%	1.70%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lineage and Highwoods Properties”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lineage	$5.34 billion	2.62	-$77.40 million	N/A	N/A
Highwoods Properties	$825.86 million	3.84	$102.25 million	$0.95	31.00

Highwoods Properties has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Lineage.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Lineage and Highwoods Properties, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lineage	0	7	10	1	2.67
Highwoods Properties	1	5	1	0	2.00

Lineage currently has a consensus target price of $82.00, indicating a potential upside of 33.86%. Highwoods Properties has a consensus target price of $30.71, indicating a potential upside of 4.29%. Given Lineage’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Lineage is more favorable than Highwoods Properties.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

96.3% of Highwoods Properties shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Lineage shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of Highwoods Properties shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Lineage pays an annual dividend of $2.11 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Highwoods Properties pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.8%. Highwoods Properties pays out 210.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

Highwoods Properties beats Lineage on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lineage

Lineage, Inc. is the world’s largest global temperature-controlled warehouse REIT with a network of over 480 strategically located facilities totaling over 84.1 million square feet and 3.0 billion cubic feet of capacity across countries in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Coupling end-to-end supply chain solutions and technology, Lineage partners with some of the world’s largest food and beverage producers, retailers, and distributors to help increase distribution efficiency, advance sustainability, minimize supply chain waste, and, most importantly, feed the world.

About Highwoods Properties

Highwoods Properties, Inc., headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded (NYSE:HIW), fully-integrated office real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa. Highwoods is in the work-placemaking business. We believe that by creating environments and experiences where the best and brightest can achieve together what they cannot apart, we can deliver greater value to our customers, their teammates and, in turn, our stakeholders.