Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) vs. Claros Mortgage Trust (NYSE:CMTG) Head-To-Head Contrast

Claros Mortgage Trust (NYSE:CMTG) and Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) 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 Claros Mortgage Trust and Public Storage, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Claros Mortgage Trust	3	0	1	0	1.50
Public Storage	0	8	7	2	2.65

Claros Mortgage Trust currently has a consensus price target of $3.33, indicating a potential upside of 7.70%. Public Storage has a consensus price target of $317.80, indicating a potential upside of 22.94%. Given Public Storage’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Public Storage is more favorable than Claros Mortgage Trust.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Claros Mortgage Trust and Public Storage”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Claros Mortgage Trust	$17.87 million	24.29	-$221.26 million	($2.65)	-1.17
Public Storage	$4.70 billion	9.66	$2.07 billion	$9.63	26.84

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

Profitability

This table compares Claros Mortgage Trust and Public Storage’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Claros Mortgage Trust	-184.07%	-7.99%	-2.39%
Public Storage	39.53%	36.09%	9.46%

Volatility & Risk

Claros Mortgage Trust has a beta of 1.19, indicating that its stock price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Public Storage has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.5% of Claros Mortgage Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.8% of Public Storage shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Claros Mortgage Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 11.1% of Public Storage shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Claros Mortgage Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.9%. Public Storage pays an annual dividend of $12.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Claros Mortgage Trust pays out -15.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Public Storage pays out 124.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Claros Mortgage Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Public Storage beats Claros Mortgage Trust on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Public Storage

Public Storage, a member of the S&P 500 and FT Global 500, is a REIT that primarily acquires, develops, owns, and operates self-storage facilities. At December 31, 2023, we had: (i) interests in 3,044 self-storage facilities located in 40 states with approximately 218 million net rentable square feet in the United States and (ii) a 35% common equity interest in Shurgard Self Storage Limited (Euronext Brussels: SHUR), which owned 275 self-storage facilities located in seven Western European nations with approximately 15 million net rentable square feet operated under the Shurgard brand. Our headquarters are located in Glendale, California.