Critical Analysis: Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) versus Claros Mortgage Trust (NYSE:CMTG)

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) and Claros Mortgage Trust (NYSE:CMTG) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, earnings, risk and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Claros Mortgage Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	0	2	7	0	2.78
Claros Mortgage Trust	3	0	1	0	1.50

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners currently has a consensus price target of $43.71, indicating a potential upside of 22.52%. Claros Mortgage Trust has a consensus price target of $3.00, indicating a potential upside of 18.34%. Given Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is more favorable than Claros Mortgage Trust.

Risk & Volatility

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a beta of 1.03, meaning that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Claros Mortgage Trust has a beta of 1.18, meaning that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Claros Mortgage Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	$23.10 billion	0.71	$771.00 million	$0.66	54.06
Claros Mortgage Trust	$187.83 million	1.89	-$489.07 million	($3.49)	-0.73

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has higher revenue and earnings than Claros Mortgage Trust. Claros Mortgage Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Claros Mortgage Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	3.46%	2.54%	0.68%
Claros Mortgage Trust	-260.38%	-15.72%	-4.84%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

57.9% of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.5% of Claros Mortgage Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of Claros Mortgage Trust shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners beats Claros Mortgage Trust on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. owns and operates utilities, transport, midstream, and data businesses in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company's Utilities segment operates approximately 2,900 km of electricity transmission lines; 4,200 km of natural gas pipelines; 8.1 million electricity and natural gas connections; and 0.6 million long-term contracted sub-metering services. This segment also offers heating, cooling, and energy solutions; gas distribution; water heaters; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioner rental, as well as other home services. Its Transport segment offers transportation, storage, and handling services for merchandise goods, commodities, and passengers through a network of approximately 22,000 km of track; 5,500 km of track network; 9,800 km of rail; and 3,300 km of motorways. The company's Midstream segment offers natural gas transmission, gathering and processing, and storage services through approximately 15,000 km of natural gas transmission pipelines; 570 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage; 17 natural gas processing plants; and 10,600 km of gas gathering pipelines, as well as 525,000 tonnes polypropylene production capacity. Its Data segment operates approximately 228,000 operational telecom towers; approximately 54,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables; approximately 1 million fiber-to-the-premise connections; two semiconductor manufacturing facilities; and 70 distributed antenna systems, as well as 135 data centers and 750 megawatts of critical load capacity and an additional approximate 670 megawatts of contracted capacity. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. operates as a subsidiary of Brookfield Corporation.

About Claros Mortgage Trust

Claros Mortgage Trust, Inc. operates as a real estate investment trust. It focuses on originating senior and subordinate loans on transitional commercial real estate assets in the United States. The company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust. As a result, it would not be subject to corporate income tax on that portion of its net income that is distributed to shareholders. The company was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in New York, New York.