InvenTrust Properties (NYSE:IVT) versus CTO Realty Growth (NYSE:CTO) Critical Survey

CTO Realty Growth (NYSE:CTO) and InvenTrust Properties (NYSE:IVT) are both real estate companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, risk, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for CTO Realty Growth and InvenTrust Properties, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CTO Realty Growth	0	1	5	1	3.00
InvenTrust Properties	0	2	4	1	2.86

CTO Realty Growth presently has a consensus target price of $24.50, indicating a potential upside of 14.17%. InvenTrust Properties has a consensus target price of $35.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.49%. Given CTO Realty Growth’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe CTO Realty Growth is more favorable than InvenTrust Properties.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

67.2% of CTO Realty Growth shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.7% of InvenTrust Properties shares are held by institutional investors. 4.5% of CTO Realty Growth shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of InvenTrust Properties shares are held by 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.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CTO Realty Growth and InvenTrust Properties”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CTO Realty Growth	$149.54 million	5.38	$10.09 million	$1.36	15.78
InvenTrust Properties	$299.17 million	8.49	$111.42 million	$0.20	162.80

InvenTrust Properties has higher revenue and earnings than CTO Realty Growth. CTO Realty Growth is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than InvenTrust Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

CTO Realty Growth pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.1%. InvenTrust Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. CTO Realty Growth pays out 111.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. InvenTrust Properties pays out 500.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. InvenTrust Properties has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years. CTO Realty Growth is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

CTO Realty Growth has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, InvenTrust Properties has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares CTO Realty Growth and InvenTrust Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CTO Realty Growth	32.63%	8.90%	4.05%
InvenTrust Properties	4.80%	0.85%	0.53%

Summary

CTO Realty Growth beats InvenTrust Properties on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CTO Realty Growth

CTO Realty Growth, Inc. is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns and operates a portfolio of high-quality, retail-based properties located primarily in higher growth markets in the United States. CTO also externally manages and owns a meaningful interest in Alpine Income Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE: PINE), a publicly traded net lease REIT.

About InvenTrust Properties

InvenTrust Properties Corp. (the “Company,” “IVT,” or “InvenTrust”) is a premier Sun Belt, multi-tenant essential retail REIT that owns, leases, redevelops, acquires and manages grocery-anchored neighborhood and community centers as well as high-quality power centers that often have a grocery component. Management pursues the Company’s business strategy by acquiring retail properties in Sun Belt markets, opportunistically disposing of retail properties, maintaining a flexible capital structure, and enhancing environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) practices and standards. A trusted, local operator bringing real estate expertise to its tenant relationships, IVT has built a strong reputation with market participants across its portfolio. IVT is committed to leadership in ESG practices and has been a Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (“GRESB”) member since 2013.