Peakstone Realty Trust (NYSE:PKST) vs. Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) Head-To-Head Contrast

Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) and Peakstone Realty Trust (NYSE:PKST) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Dividends

Ellington Credit pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.5%. Peakstone Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.0%. Ellington Credit pays out 85.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Peakstone Realty Trust pays out -76.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Ellington Credit and Peakstone Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ellington Credit	226.01%	15.81%	2.71%
Peakstone Realty Trust	-18.26%	-3.61%	-1.59%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

20.4% of Ellington Credit shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.0% of Peakstone Realty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of Ellington Credit shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Peakstone Realty Trust shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ellington Credit and Peakstone Realty Trust”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ellington Credit	$29.61 million	6.52	$4.56 million	$1.12	5.91
Peakstone Realty Trust	$254.28 million	1.61	-$550.58 million	($1.18)	-9.53

Ellington Credit has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Peakstone Realty Trust. Peakstone Realty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ellington Credit, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Ellington Credit and Peakstone Realty Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ellington Credit	0	1	0	0	2.00
Peakstone Realty Trust	0	1	0	1	3.00

Peakstone Realty Trust has a consensus target price of $15.00, suggesting a potential upside of 33.42%. Given Peakstone Realty Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Peakstone Realty Trust is more favorable than Ellington Credit.

Risk & Volatility

Ellington Credit has a beta of 1.86, meaning that its share price is 86% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Peakstone Realty Trust has a beta of 2.59, meaning that its share price is 159% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Ellington Credit beats Peakstone Realty Trust on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ellington Credit

Ellington Credit Company, a real estate investment trust, acquires, invests in, and manages residential mortgage-and real estate-related assets. It acquires and manages residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), including agency pools and agency collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs); and non-agency RMBS, such as non-agency CMOs, such as investment grade and non-investment grade. The company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust. As a result, it would not be subject to corporate income tax on that portion of its net income that is distributed to shareholders. The company was formerly known as Ellington Residential Mortgage REIT and changed its name to Ellington Credit Company in April 2024. Ellington Credit Company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.

About Peakstone Realty Trust

Peakstone Realty Trust (NYSE: PKST) is an internally managed, real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and operates a high-quality, newer-vintage portfolio of predominantly single-tenant industrial and office properties. These assets are generally leased to creditworthy tenants under long-term net lease agreements with contractual rent escalations. As of March 31, 2023, Peakstone's wholly-owned portfolio consists of 19 million square feet across 24 states in primarily high-growth, strategic coastal and sunbelt markets.