Critical Contrast: Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LANDO) and American Tower (NYSE:AMT)

Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LANDO) and American Tower (NYSE:AMT) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, dividends and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Gladstone Land and American Tower’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gladstone Land	N/A	N/A	N/A
American Tower	13.31%	12.80%	2.24%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Gladstone Land and American Tower’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gladstone Land	$90.40 million	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
American Tower	$11.14 billion	7.29	$1.48 billion	$3.18	54.78

American Tower has higher revenue and earnings than Gladstone Land.

Dividends

Gladstone Land pays an annual dividend of $1.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.7%. American Tower pays an annual dividend of $6.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. American Tower pays out 203.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.7% of American Tower shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of American Tower shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Gladstone Land and American Tower, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gladstone Land	0	0	0	0	N/A
American Tower	0	2	9	0	2.82

American Tower has a consensus price target of $217.36, suggesting a potential upside of 24.78%. Given American Tower’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe American Tower is more favorable than Gladstone Land.

Summary

American Tower beats Gladstone Land on 8 of the 10 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 American Tower

American Tower, one of the largest global REITs, is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a portfolio of over 224,000 communications sites and a highly interconnected footprint of U.S. data center facilities.