Head to Head Comparison: COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) & SL Green Realty (NYSE:SLG)

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) and SL Green Realty (NYSE:SLG) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares COPT Defense Properties and SL Green Realty’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
COPT Defense Properties	18.34%	8.99%	3.25%
SL Green Realty	-16.78%	-3.76%	-1.46%

Dividends

COPT Defense Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.18 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. SL Green Realty pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. COPT Defense Properties pays out 96.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. SL Green Realty pays out -120.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SL Green Realty is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for COPT Defense Properties and SL Green Realty, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
COPT Defense Properties	0	3	4	0	2.57
SL Green Realty	2	10	2	0	2.00

COPT Defense Properties presently has a consensus price target of $30.86, suggesting a potential downside of 4.85%. SL Green Realty has a consensus price target of $65.57, suggesting a potential downside of 19.04%. Given COPT Defense Properties’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe COPT Defense Properties is more favorable than SL Green Realty.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

90.0% of SL Green Realty shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of COPT Defense Properties shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.1% of SL Green Realty shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

COPT Defense Properties has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SL Green Realty has a beta of 1.82, suggesting that its stock price is 82% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares COPT Defense Properties and SL Green Realty”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
COPT Defense Properties	$684.98 million	5.34	-$73.47 million	$1.22	26.58
SL Green Realty	$913.71 million	5.84	-$557.30 million	($2.50)	-32.40

COPT Defense Properties has higher earnings, but lower revenue than SL Green Realty. SL Green Realty is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than COPT Defense Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

COPT Defense Properties beats SL Green Realty on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About COPT Defense Properties

COPT Defense, an S&P MidCap 400 Company, is a self-managed REIT focused on owning, operating and developing properties in locations proximate to, or sometimes containing, key U.S. Government (USG) defense installations and missions (referred to as its Defense/IT Portfolio). The Company's tenants include the USG and their defense contractors, who are primarily engaged in priority national security activities, and who generally require mission-critical and high security property enhancements. As of December 31, 2023, the Company's Defense/IT Portfolio of 190 properties, including 24 owned through unconsolidated joint ventures, encompassed 21.7 million square feet and was 97.2% leased.

About SL Green Realty

3SL Green Realty Corp., Manhattan’s largest office landlord, is a fully integrated real estate investment trust, or REIT, that is focused primarily on acquiring, managing and maximizing value of Manhattan commercial properties. As of June 30, 2022, SL Green held interests in 64 buildings totaling 34.4 million square feet. This included ownership interests in 26.3 million square feet of Manhattan buildings and 7.2 million square feet securing debt and preferred equity investments.