Critical Survey: Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) and First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey (OTCMKTS:FREVS)

First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey (OTCMKTS:FREVS) and Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey and Mid-America Apartment Communities, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey	0	0	0	0	0.00
Mid-America Apartment Communities	1	11	8	0	2.35

Mid-America Apartment Communities has a consensus target price of $144.69, suggesting a potential upside of 12.73%. Given Mid-America Apartment Communities’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Mid-America Apartment Communities is more favorable than First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey.

Dividends

First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey pays an annual dividend of $1.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.3%. Mid-America Apartment Communities pays an annual dividend of $6.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey pays out 92.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Mid-America Apartment Communities pays out 178.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Mid-America Apartment Communities has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years. First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey and Mid-America Apartment Communities”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey	N/A	N/A	N/A	$1.69	12.63
Mid-America Apartment Communities	$2.21 billion	6.74	$446.91 million	$3.42	37.53

Mid-America Apartment Communities has higher revenue and earnings than First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey. First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Mid-America Apartment Communities, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey and Mid-America Apartment Communities’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey	N/A	N/A	N/A
Mid-America Apartment Communities	18.17%	6.99%	3.37%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

93.6% of Mid-America Apartment Communities shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.0% of First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Mid-America Apartment Communities shares are owned 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.

Summary

Mid-America Apartment Communities beats First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey

First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey, Inc. is a publicly traded (over-the-counter symbol FREVS) REIT organized in 1961. Its portfolio of residential and commercial properties are located in New Jersey and New York, with the largest concentration in northern New Jersey.

About Mid-America Apartment Communities

Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the operation, acquisition, and development of apartment communities. It operates through the Same Store and Non-Same Store segments. The Same Store Communities segment represents those apartment communities that have been owned and stabilized for at least 12 months as of the first day of the calendar year. The Non-Same Store segment includes recent acquisitions, communities in development or lease-up. The company was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Germantown, TN.