Critical Survey: Orion Office REIT (NYSE:ONL) & Cromwell Property Group (OTCMKTS:CMWCF)

Orion Office REIT (NYSE:ONL) and Cromwell Property Group (OTCMKTS:CMWCF) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Orion Office REIT and Cromwell Property Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Orion Office REIT	-65.66%	-14.85%	-7.95%
Cromwell Property Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Institutional and Insider Ownership

79.9% of Orion Office REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of Orion Office REIT shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Orion Office REIT and Cromwell Property Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Orion Office REIT	$147.65 million	1.09	-$139.31 million	($1.69)	-1.67
Cromwell Property Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.11	2.38

Cromwell Property Group has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Orion Office REIT. Orion Office REIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cromwell Property Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Orion Office REIT and Cromwell Property Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Orion Office REIT	1	0	1	0	2.00
Cromwell Property Group	0	0	0	0	0.00

Orion Office REIT currently has a consensus target price of $3.50, indicating a potential upside of 23.89%. Given Orion Office REIT’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Orion Office REIT is more favorable than Cromwell Property Group.

Dividends

Orion Office REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Cromwell Property Group pays an annual dividend of $0.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.7%. Orion Office REIT pays out -4.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Cromwell Property Group pays out 18.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Summary

Orion Office REIT beats Cromwell Property Group on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Orion Office REIT

Orion Office REIT specializes in the ownership, acquisition and management of a diversified portfolio of mission-critical and corporate headquarters office buildings in high-quality suburban markets across the U.S. The portfolio is leased primarily on a single-tenant net lease basis to creditworthy tenants. The company's team of experienced industry leaders employs a proven, cycle-tested investment evaluation framework which serves as the lens through which capital allocation decisions are made for the current portfolio and future acquisitions.

About Cromwell Property Group

Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW) is a real estate investor and fund manager with operations on three continents and a global investor base. Cromwell is included in the S&P/ASX200. As at 30 June 2022, Cromwell had a market capitalisation of $2.0 billion, an Australian investment portfolio valued at $3.0 billion and total assets under management of $12.0 billion across Australia, New Zealand and Europe.