Reviewing InnSuites Hospitality Trust (NYSE:IHT) and Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW)

InnSuites Hospitality Trust (NYSE:IHT) and Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for InnSuites Hospitality Trust and Highwoods Properties, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
InnSuites Hospitality Trust	0	0	0	0	N/A
Highwoods Properties	1	5	2	0	2.13

Highwoods Properties has a consensus price target of $24.75, indicating a potential downside of 10.52%. Given Highwoods Properties’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Highwoods Properties is more favorable than InnSuites Hospitality Trust.

Risk and Volatility

InnSuites Hospitality Trust has a beta of 0.11, meaning that its share price is 89% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Highwoods Properties has a beta of 1.27, meaning that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares InnSuites Hospitality Trust and Highwoods Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
InnSuites Hospitality Trust	-2.14%	-5.38%	-1.02%
Highwoods Properties	15.78%	5.44%	2.18%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

2.5% of InnSuites Hospitality Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.3% of Highwoods Properties shares are held by institutional investors. 2.0% of InnSuites Hospitality Trust shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Highwoods Properties shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

InnSuites Hospitality Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Highwoods Properties pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.2%. InnSuites Hospitality Trust pays out -100.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Highwoods Properties pays out 163.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares InnSuites Hospitality Trust and Highwoods Properties’ gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
InnSuites Hospitality Trust	$7.48 million	2.09	$200,000.00	($0.02)	-86.75
Highwoods Properties	$834.00 million	3.52	$148.71 million	$1.22	22.67

Highwoods Properties has higher revenue and earnings than InnSuites Hospitality Trust. InnSuites Hospitality Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Highwoods Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Highwoods Properties beats InnSuites Hospitality Trust on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About InnSuites Hospitality Trust

InnSuites Hospitality Trust (NYSE American symbol: IHT) first listed on the NYSE in 1971 is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona is an unincorporated Ohio Business. Trust that owns and manages hotels under the InnSuites Hotels name. IHT qualifies as a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) for tax treatment currently taxed as a corporation with the IRS. IHT has paid dividends each year since 1971 currently at $0.2/year. There are approximately 9 million shares of stock outstanding. In addition, there are approximately 3 million RRF Partnership units convertible 1 to 1 into IHT stock. Total shares and units are approximately 12 million.

About Highwoods Properties

Highwoods Properties, Inc., headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded (NYSE:HIW), fully-integrated office real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa. Highwoods is in the work-placemaking business. We believe that by creating environments and experiences where the best and brightest can achieve together what they cannot apart, we can deliver greater value to our customers, their teammates and, in turn, our stakeholders.