Lineage (NASDAQ:LINE) versus Lument Finance Trust (NYSE:LFT) Critical Survey

Lument Finance Trust (NYSE:LFT) and Lineage (NASDAQ:LINE) are both finance 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 Lument Finance Trust and Lineage, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lument Finance Trust	0	1	1	0	2.50
Lineage	0	6	10	1	2.71

Lument Finance Trust presently has a consensus target price of $2.50, indicating a potential downside of 3.85%. Lineage has a consensus target price of $88.50, indicating a potential upside of 50.00%. Given Lineage’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Lineage is more favorable than Lument Finance Trust.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

19.5% of Lument Finance Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of Lument Finance Trust shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Lineage 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 Lument Finance Trust and Lineage”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lument Finance Trust	$34.66 million	3.92	$19.72 million	$0.36	7.22
Lineage	$5.33 billion	2.53	-$77.40 million	N/A	N/A

Lument Finance Trust has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Lineage.

Profitability

This table compares Lument Finance Trust and Lineage’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lument Finance Trust	18.19%	14.41%	1.98%
Lineage	-12.18%	-9.89%	-3.51%

Dividends

Lument Finance Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.3%. Lineage pays an annual dividend of $2.11 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Lument Finance Trust pays out 88.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

Lument Finance Trust beats Lineage on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lument Finance Trust

Lument Finance Trust, Inc., a real estate investment trust, focuses on investing in, financing, and managing a portfolio of commercial real estate (CRE) debt investments in the United States. The company primarily invests in transitional floating rate CRE mortgage loans on middle market multi-family assets; and other CRE -related investments, including mezzanine loans, preferred equity, commercial mortgage-backed securities, fixed rate loans, construction loans, and other CRE debt instruments. Lument Finance Trust, Inc. is qualified as a real estate investment trust (REIT) under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. As a REIT, it would not be subject to federal income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. The company was formerly known as Hunt Companies Finance Trust, Inc. and changed its name to Lument Finance Trust, Inc. in December 2020. Lument Finance Trust, Inc. was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Lineage

Lineage, Inc. is the world’s largest global temperature-controlled warehouse REIT with a network of over 480 strategically located facilities totaling over 84.1 million square feet and 3.0 billion cubic feet of capacity across countries in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Coupling end-to-end supply chain solutions and technology, Lineage partners with some of the world’s largest food and beverage producers, retailers, and distributors to help increase distribution efficiency, advance sustainability, minimize supply chain waste, and, most importantly, feed the world.