Comparing Smartstop Self Storage REIT (SMA) & Its Rivals

Smartstop Self Storage REIT (NYSE:SMA) is one of 35 publicly-traded companies in the “Specialized REITs” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Smartstop Self Storage REIT to similar companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Smartstop Self Storage REIT and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Smartstop Self Storage REIT	1	5	3	2	2.55
Smartstop Self Storage REIT Competitors	518	2784	3666	191	2.49

Smartstop Self Storage REIT presently has a consensus target price of $36.42, suggesting a potential downside of 6.55%. As a group, “Specialized REITs” companies have a potential upside of 15.51%. Given Smartstop Self Storage REIT’s competitors higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Smartstop Self Storage REIT has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

78.0% of shares of all “Specialized REITs” companies are owned by institutional investors. 5.7% of Smartstop Self Storage REIT shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.5% of shares of all “Specialized REITs” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Smartstop Self Storage REIT has a beta of 0.27, indicating that its stock price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Smartstop Self Storage REIT’s competitors have a beta of 0.92, indicating that their average stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Smartstop Self Storage REIT pays an annual dividend of $1.63 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Smartstop Self Storage REIT pays out 281.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Specialized REITs” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.4% and pay out 120.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Smartstop Self Storage REIT and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Smartstop Self Storage REIT	$281.14 million	-$1.55 million	67.19
Smartstop Self Storage REIT Competitors	$2.58 billion	$596.00 million	31.60

Smartstop Self Storage REIT’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Smartstop Self Storage REIT. Smartstop Self Storage REIT is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Smartstop Self Storage REIT and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Smartstop Self Storage REIT	10.52%	2.64%	1.37%
Smartstop Self Storage REIT Competitors	-5.27%	-3.18%	2.01%

Summary

Smartstop Self Storage REIT competitors beat Smartstop Self Storage REIT on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

Smartstop Self Storage REIT Company Profile

Symmetry Medical Inc. (Symmetry) is a medical device solutions company, including surgical instruments, orthopedic implants, and sterilization cases and trays. The Company designs, develops and offers worldwide production and supply chain capabilities for these products to customers in the orthopedic industry, and other medical device markets (including but not limited to arthroscopy, dental, laparoscopy, osteobiologic, and endoscopy segments). It also manufactures specialized non-healthcare products, primarily in the aerospace industry. The Company operates in two segments: original equipment manufacturer (OEM) solutions and symmetry surgical. On August 15, 2011, the Company acquired PSC Industries, Inc’s Olsen Medical division. On December 29, 2011 it acquired the surgical instruments product portfolio from Codman & Shurtleff, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson Company.