Lineage (NASDAQ:LINE) vs. Americold Realty Trust (NYSE:COLD) Critical Analysis

Lineage (NASDAQ:LINE) and Americold Realty Trust (NYSE:COLD) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, valuation, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Lineage and Americold Realty Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lineage	0	7	10	1	2.67
Americold Realty Trust	0	3	9	0	2.75

Lineage currently has a consensus target price of $82.41, suggesting a potential upside of 38.05%. Americold Realty Trust has a consensus target price of $29.17, suggesting a potential upside of 26.51%. Given Lineage’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Lineage is more favorable than Americold Realty Trust.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

98.1% of Americold Realty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Lineage shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Americold Realty Trust shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Lineage and Americold Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lineage	-12.18%	-9.89%	-3.51%
Americold Realty Trust	-3.54%	-2.70%	-1.21%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Lineage and Americold Realty Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lineage	$5.33 billion	2.56	-$77.40 million	N/A	N/A
Americold Realty Trust	$2.67 billion	2.46	-$336.21 million	($0.34)	-67.81

Lineage has higher revenue and earnings than Americold Realty Trust.

Dividends

Lineage pays an annual dividend of $2.11 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Americold Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Americold Realty Trust pays out -258.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

About Lineage

Lineage, Inc. is the world’s largest global temperature-controlled warehouse REIT with a network of over 480 strategically located facilities totaling over 84.1 million square feet and 3.0 billion cubic feet of capacity across countries in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Coupling end-to-end supply chain solutions and technology, Lineage partners with some of the world’s largest food and beverage producers, retailers, and distributors to help increase distribution efficiency, advance sustainability, minimize supply chain waste, and, most importantly, feed the world.

About Americold Realty Trust

Americold Realty Trust, Inc. is a real estate investment trust, which focuses on the ownership, operation, development, and acquisition of temperature-controlled warehouses. It operates through the following segments: Warehouse, Third-Party Managed, Transportation, and Other. The Warehouse segment collects rent and storage fees from customers to store frozen and perishable food and other products within the firm’s real estate portfolio. The Third-Party Managed segment manages warehouses on behalf of third parties and provides warehouse management services to food retailers and manufacturers in customer-owned facilities. The Transportation segment is involved in brokering and managing transportation of frozen and perishable food and other products. The Other segment includes ownership in a limestone quarry in Carthage, Missouri. The company was founded in 1931 and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.