Head to Head Analysis: InnSuites Hospitality Trust (NYSE:IHT) versus Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO)

Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) and InnSuites Hospitality Trust (NYSE:IHT) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Sunstone Hotel Investors and InnSuites Hospitality Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sunstone Hotel Investors	5.30%	3.21%	1.75%
InnSuites Hospitality Trust	-11.56%	-40.28%	-5.83%

Dividends

Sunstone Hotel Investors pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. InnSuites Hospitality Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Sunstone Hotel Investors pays out 163.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. InnSuites Hospitality Trust pays out -14.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sunstone Hotel Investors has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Sunstone Hotel Investors is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Volatility and Risk

Sunstone Hotel Investors has a beta of 0.97, meaning that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, InnSuites Hospitality Trust has a beta of 0.29, meaning that its share price is 71% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Sunstone Hotel Investors and InnSuites Hospitality Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sunstone Hotel Investors	1	5	1	1	2.25
InnSuites Hospitality Trust	0	0	0	0	0.00

Sunstone Hotel Investors presently has a consensus target price of $10.67, indicating a potential downside of 4.72%. Given Sunstone Hotel Investors’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Sunstone Hotel Investors is more favorable than InnSuites Hospitality Trust.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sunstone Hotel Investors and InnSuites Hospitality Trust”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sunstone Hotel Investors	$960.13 million	2.17	$24.57 million	$0.22	50.89
InnSuites Hospitality Trust	$7.56 million	1.59	$200,000.00	($0.14)	-9.14

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

99.4% of Sunstone Hotel Investors shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.5% of InnSuites Hospitality Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Sunstone Hotel Investors shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 68.1% of InnSuites Hospitality Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Sunstone Hotel Investors beats InnSuites Hospitality Trust on 16 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sunstone Hotel Investors

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. is a lodging real estate investment trust ("REIT") that as of the date of this release owns 14 hotels comprised of 6,675 rooms, the majority of which are operated under nationally recognized brands. Sunstone's strategy is to create long-term stakeholder value through the acquisition, active ownership, and disposition of well-located hotel and resort real estate.

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.