Critical Analysis: Sunrise Realty Trust (NASDAQ:SUNS) and City Office REIT (NYSE:CIO)

Sunrise Realty Trust (NASDAQ:SUNS) and City Office REIT (NYSE:CIO) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Dividends

Sunrise Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.7%. City Office REIT pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.9%. City Office REIT pays out -95.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Sunrise Realty Trust and City Office REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sunrise Realty Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A
City Office REIT	-5.56%	-1.48%	-0.65%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

67.5% of City Office REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.7% of Sunrise Realty Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.9% of City Office REIT shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Sunrise Realty Trust and City Office REIT, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sunrise Realty Trust	0	0	1	0	3.00
City Office REIT	0	0	0	0	0.00

Sunrise Realty Trust presently has a consensus target price of $17.50, indicating a potential upside of 18.40%. Given Sunrise Realty Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Sunrise Realty Trust is more favorable than City Office REIT.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Sunrise Realty Trust and City Office REIT”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sunrise Realty Trust	$250,000.00	409.70	$230,000.00	N/A	N/A
City Office REIT	$179.10 million	1.13	-$2.68 million	($0.42)	-12.02

Sunrise Realty Trust has higher earnings, but lower revenue than City Office REIT.

Summary

Sunrise Realty Trust beats City Office REIT on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sunrise Realty Trust

Sunrise Realty Trust, Inc. engages in commercial real estate (CRE) lending business. It focuses on originating CRE debt investments and providing capital to borrowers and sponsors with transitional business plans collateralized by CRE assets. The company intends to create a diversified investment portfolio, targeting investments in senior mortgage loans, mezzanine loans, whole loans, B-notes, CMBS, and debt-like preferred equity securities across CRE asset classes. Sunrise Realty Trust, Inc. was incorporated in 2023 and is based in West Palm Beach, Florida.

About City Office REIT

City Office REIT is an internally-managed real estate company focused on acquiring, owning and operating high-quality office properties located predominantly in Sun Belt markets. City Office currently owns or has a controlling interest in 5.7 million square feet of office properties. The Company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes.