Equity Lifestyle Properties (ELS) versus Bluerock Residential Growth REIT (BRG) Head to Head Review

Equity Lifestyle Properties (NYSE: ELS) and Bluerock Residential Growth REIT (NYSE:BRG) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Equity Lifestyle Properties and Bluerock Residential Growth REIT, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Equity Lifestyle Properties	1	1	1	0	2.00
Bluerock Residential Growth REIT	0	1	1	0	2.50

Equity Lifestyle Properties presently has a consensus target price of $78.67, indicating a potential downside of 11.76%. Bluerock Residential Growth REIT has a consensus target price of $13.00, indicating a potential upside of 29.61%. Given Bluerock Residential Growth REIT’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Bluerock Residential Growth REIT is more favorable than Equity Lifestyle Properties.

Dividends

Equity Lifestyle Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.95 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Bluerock Residential Growth REIT does not pay a dividend. Equity Lifestyle Properties pays out 97.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Bluerock Residential Growth REIT has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Equity Lifestyle Properties and Bluerock Residential Growth REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Equity Lifestyle Properties	22.00%	20.64%	5.66%
Bluerock Residential Growth REIT	128.54%	30.92%	10.01%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

96.7% of Equity Lifestyle Properties shares are held by institutional investors. 6.1% of Equity Lifestyle Properties shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Equity Lifestyle Properties and Bluerock Residential Growth REIT’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Equity Lifestyle Properties	$897.06 million	8.65	$426.41 million	$2.01	44.35
Bluerock Residential Growth REIT	$106.99 million	2.27	$47.01 million	N/A	N/A

Equity Lifestyle Properties has higher revenue and earnings than Bluerock Residential Growth REIT.

Summary

Bluerock Residential Growth REIT beats Equity Lifestyle Properties on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Equity Lifestyle Properties

Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. is a real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company is an owner and operator of lifestyle-oriented properties (properties) consisting primarily of manufactured home (MH) communities and recreational vehicle (RV) resorts and campgrounds. The Company operates through two segments: Property Operations and Home Sales and Rentals Operations. The Property Operations segment owns and operates land lease properties and the Home Sales and Rentals Operations segment purchases, sells and leases homes at the properties. It leases individual developed areas (sites) with access to utilities for placement of factory built homes, cottages, cabins or RVs. As of December 31, 2016, the Company’s property portfolio included 391 properties consisted of 146,610 residential sites. Its properties are designed for home options of various sizes and designs that are produced off-site by third-party manufacturers, installed and set on designated sites within the properties.

About Bluerock Residential Growth REIT

Bluerock Residential Growth REIT, Inc. is a real estate investment trust. The Company is focused on acquiring a portfolio of residential real estate assets. As of December 31, 2016, the Company’s portfolio consisted of interests in 31 properties (21 operating and 10 development properties). As of December 31, 2016, its properties contained an aggregate of 9,570 units, consisting of 6,972 operating units and 2,598 units under development. As of December 31, 2016, its operating properties included ARIUM at Palmer Ranch, Sarasota; ARIUM Grandewood, Orlando; ARIUM Gulfshore, Naples; ARIUM Palms, Orlando; ARIUM Pine Lakes, Port St. Lucie; ARIUM Westside, Atlanta; Ashton Reserve, Charlotte; Enders at Baldwin Park, Orlando; Fox Hill, Austin; Lansbrook Village, Palm Harbor; Legacy at Southpark, Austin; Nevadan, Atlanta; Roswell City Walk, Roswell; Sorrel, Frisco; Sovereign, Fort Worth; The Preserve at Henderson Beach, Destin; Village Green of Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, and Whetstone, Durham.