Sotherly Hotels (NASDAQ:SOHO) & Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) Head-To-Head Review

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) and Sotherly Hotels (NASDAQ:SOHO) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and valuation.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

99.7% of Digital Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.5% of Sotherly Hotels shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Digital Realty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.9% of Sotherly Hotels shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Digital Realty Trust and Sotherly Hotels”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Digital Realty Trust	$5.49 billion	10.16	$948.84 million	$1.19	141.34
Sotherly Hotels	$173.84 million	0.09	$3.94 million	($0.33)	-2.45

Digital Realty Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Sotherly Hotels. Sotherly Hotels is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Digital Realty Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Digital Realty Trust and Sotherly Hotels’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Digital Realty Trust	8.04%	2.24%	1.00%
Sotherly Hotels	0.92%	3.48%	0.41%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Digital Realty Trust and Sotherly Hotels, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Digital Realty Trust	1	6	14	2	2.74
Sotherly Hotels	0	1	0	0	2.00

Digital Realty Trust currently has a consensus target price of $179.70, suggesting a potential upside of 6.84%. Sotherly Hotels has a consensus target price of $1.50, suggesting a potential upside of 85.19%. Given Sotherly Hotels’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Sotherly Hotels is more favorable than Digital Realty Trust.

Risk and Volatility

Digital Realty Trust has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sotherly Hotels has a beta of 1.53, indicating that its stock price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Digital Realty Trust beats Sotherly Hotels on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Digital Realty Trust

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. operates as a real estate investment trust, which engages in the provision of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. It serves the following industries: artificial intelligence (AI), networks, cloud, digital media, mobile, financial services, healthcare, and gaming. The company was founded on March 9, 2004, and is headquartered in Dallas, TX.

About Sotherly Hotels

Sotherly Hotels Inc. is a self-managed and self-administered lodging REIT focused on the acquisition, renovation, upbranding and repositioning of upscale to upper-upscale full-service hotels in the Southern United States. Sotherly may also opportunistically acquire hotels throughout the United States. Currently, the Company's portfolio consists of investments in ten hotel properties, comprising 2,786 rooms, as well as interests in two condominium hotels and their associated rental programs. The Company owns hotels that operate under the Hilton Worldwide and Hyatt Hotels Corporation brands, as well as independent hotels. Sotherly Hotels Inc. was organized in 2004 and is headquartered in Williamsburg, Virginia.