Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND) & Rexford Industrial Realty (NYSE:REXR) Head to Head Analysis

Rexford Industrial Realty (NYSE:REXR) and Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Risk and Volatility

Rexford Industrial Realty has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Gladstone Land has a beta of 1.04, indicating that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Rexford Industrial Realty and Gladstone Land”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Rexford Industrial Realty	$797.83 million	11.74	$238.02 million	$1.23	34.23
Gladstone Land	$90.40 million	4.82	$14.56 million	($0.26)	-46.27

Rexford Industrial Realty has higher revenue and earnings than Gladstone Land. Gladstone Land is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Rexford Industrial Realty, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Rexford Industrial Realty and Gladstone Land’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rexford Industrial Realty	30.40%	3.35%	2.29%
Gladstone Land	16.45%	2.05%	1.07%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Rexford Industrial Realty and Gladstone Land, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rexford Industrial Realty	1	6	3	0	2.20
Gladstone Land	0	3	1	0	2.25

Rexford Industrial Realty presently has a consensus price target of $51.09, suggesting a potential upside of 21.36%. Gladstone Land has a consensus price target of $15.50, suggesting a potential upside of 28.84%. Given Gladstone Land’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Gladstone Land is more favorable than Rexford Industrial Realty.

Dividends

Rexford Industrial Realty pays an annual dividend of $1.67 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Gladstone Land pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Rexford Industrial Realty pays out 135.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Gladstone Land pays out -215.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Gladstone Land is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

99.5% of Rexford Industrial Realty shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.6% of Gladstone Land shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Rexford Industrial Realty shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.1% of Gladstone Land shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Rexford Industrial Realty beats Gladstone Land on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Rexford Industrial Realty

Rexford Industrial creates value by investing in, operating and redeveloping industrial properties throughout infill Southern California, the world's fourth largest industrial market and consistently the highest-demand with lowest-supply major market in the nation. The Company's highly differentiated strategy enables internal and external growth opportunities through its proprietary value creation and asset management capabilities. Rexford Industrial's high-quality, irreplaceable portfolio comprises 371 properties with approximately 45.0 million rentable square feet occupied by a stable and diverse tenant base. Structured as a real estate investment trust (REIT) listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "REXR," Rexford Industrial is an S&P MidCap 400 Index member.

About Gladstone Land

Founded in 1997, Gladstone Land is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires and owns farmland and farm-related properties located in major agricultural markets in the U.S. and leases its properties to unrelated third-party farmers. The Company, which reports the aggregate fair value of its farmland holdings on a quarterly basis, currently owns 169 farms, comprised of approximately 116,000 acres in 15 different states and over 45,000 acre-feet of banked water in California, valued at a total of approximately $1.6 billion. Gladstone Land’s farms are predominantly located in regions where its tenants are able to grow fresh produce annual row crops, such as berries and vegetables, which are generally planted and harvested annually. The Company also owns farms growing permanent crops, such as almonds, apples, cherries, figs, lemons, olives, pistachios, and other orchards, as well as blueberry groves and vineyards, which are generally planted every 20-plus years and harvested annually. Approximately 40% of the Company’s fresh produce acreage is either organic or in transition to become organic, and over 10% of its permanent crop acreage falls into this category. The Company may also acquire property related to farming, such as cooling facilities, processing buildings, packaging facilities, and distribution centers. Gladstone Land pays monthly distributions to its stockholders and has paid 129 consecutive monthly cash distributions on its common stock since its initial public offering in January 2013. The Company has increased its common distributions 32 times over the prior 35 quarters, and the current per-share distribution on its common stock is $0.0464 per month, or $0.5568 per year.