Public Storage (PSA) Competitors

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) and Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, community ranking, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, profitability, media sentiment and valuation.

Which has more risk and volatility, AMT or PSA?

American Tower has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Public Storage has a beta of 0.7, indicating that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor AMT or PSA?

American Tower received 546 more outperform votes than Public Storage when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 75.13% of users gave American Tower an outperform vote while only 51.24% of users gave Public Storage an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
American Tower	Outperform Votes 1000 75.13%	Underperform Votes 331 24.87%
Public Storage	Outperform Votes 454 51.24%	Underperform Votes 432 48.76%

Is AMT or PSA more profitable?

Public Storage has a net margin of 40.54% compared to American Tower's net margin of 10.05%. Public Storage's return on equity of 34.07% beat American Tower's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Tower	10.05%	22.01%	3.55%
Public Storage	40.54%	34.07%	9.60%

Do analysts rate AMT or PSA?

American Tower presently has a consensus price target of $235.85, suggesting a potential upside of 20.05%. Public Storage has a consensus price target of $339.64, suggesting a potential upside of 1.38%. Given American Tower's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe American Tower is more favorable than Public Storage.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Tower	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.85
Public Storage	1 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.60

Does the media prefer AMT or PSA?

In the previous week, American Tower had 2 more articles in the media than Public Storage. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for American Tower and 20 mentions for Public Storage. American Tower's average media sentiment score of 1.49 beat Public Storage's score of 1.00 indicating that American Tower is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
American Tower	21 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Public Storage	12 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is AMT or PSA a better dividend stock?

American Tower pays an annual dividend of $6.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Public Storage pays an annual dividend of $12.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. American Tower pays out 273.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Public Storage pays out 124.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Public Storage is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, AMT or PSA?

Public Storage has lower revenue, but higher earnings than American Tower. Public Storage is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Tower, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Tower	$11.14B	8.24	$1.48B	$2.37	82.89
Public Storage	$4.52B	12.99	$2.15B	$9.63	34.79

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of AMT or PSA?

92.7% of American Tower shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.8% of Public Storage shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of American Tower shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 11.0% of Public Storage shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

American Tower beats Public Storage on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.