Critical Survey: SITE Centers (NYSE:SITC) and Alexandria Real Estate Equities (NYSE:ARE)

SITE Centers (NYSE:SITC) and Alexandria Real Estate Equities (NYSE:ARE) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and earnings.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SITE Centers and Alexandria Real Estate Equities”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SITE Centers	$453.19 million	1.86	$265.70 million	$13.67	1.18
Alexandria Real Estate Equities	$2.89 billion	6.56	$103.64 million	$1.64	66.04

SITE Centers has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Alexandria Real Estate Equities. SITE Centers is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alexandria Real Estate Equities, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

88.7% of SITE Centers shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.5% of Alexandria Real Estate Equities shares are held by institutional investors. 10.1% of SITE Centers shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Alexandria Real Estate Equities shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for SITE Centers and Alexandria Real Estate Equities, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SITE Centers	0	8	2	0	2.20
Alexandria Real Estate Equities	0	8	3	0	2.27

SITE Centers presently has a consensus target price of $58.89, suggesting a potential upside of 265.79%. Alexandria Real Estate Equities has a consensus target price of $127.30, suggesting a potential upside of 17.54%. Given SITE Centers’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe SITE Centers is more favorable than Alexandria Real Estate Equities.

Profitability

This table compares SITE Centers and Alexandria Real Estate Equities’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SITE Centers	164.10%	34.20%	19.41%
Alexandria Real Estate Equities	9.62%	1.31%	0.79%

Volatility & Risk

SITE Centers has a beta of 1.62, meaning that its share price is 62% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alexandria Real Estate Equities has a beta of 1.16, meaning that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

SITE Centers pays an annual dividend of $1.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.7%. Alexandria Real Estate Equities pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. SITE Centers pays out 11.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Alexandria Real Estate Equities pays out 317.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Alexandria Real Estate Equities has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years. SITE Centers is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

SITE Centers beats Alexandria Real Estate Equities on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SITE Centers

SITE Centers is an owner and manager of open-air shopping centers located in suburban, high household income communities. The Company is a self-administered and self-managed REIT operating as a fully integrated real estate company, and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SITC.

About Alexandria Real Estate Equities

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an S&P 500 company, is a best-in-class, mission-driven life science REIT making a positive and lasting impact on the world. As the pioneer of the life science real estate niche since our founding in 1994, Alexandria is the preeminent and longest-tenured owner, operator, and developer of collaborative life science, agtech, and advanced technology mega campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, including Greater Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, San Diego, Seattle, Maryland, and Research Triangle. Alexandria has a total market capitalization of $33.1 billion and an asset base in North America of 73.5 million SF as of December 31, 2023, which includes 42.0 million RSF of operating properties, 5.5 million RSF of Class A/A+ properties undergoing construction and one near-term project expected to commence construction in the next two years, 2.1 million RSF of priority anticipated development and redevelopment projects, and 23.9 million SF of future development projects. Alexandria has a longstanding and proven track record of developing Class A/A+ properties clustered in life science, agtech, and advanced technology mega campuses that provide our innovative tenants with highly dynamic and collaborative environments that enhance their ability to successfully recruit and retain world-class talent and inspire productivity, efficiency, creativity, and success. Alexandria also provides strategic capital to transformative life science, agrifoodtech, climate innovation, and technology companies through our venture capital platform. We believe our unique business model and diligent underwriting ensure a high-quality and diverse tenant base that results in higher occupancy levels, longer lease terms, higher rental income, higher returns, and greater long-term asset value.