Critical Review: Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) & Easterly Government Properties (NYSE:DEA)

Easterly Government Properties (NYSE:DEA) and Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Easterly Government Properties and Weyerhaeuser, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Easterly Government Properties	1	1	1	0	2.00
Weyerhaeuser	0	2	5	1	2.88

Easterly Government Properties currently has a consensus price target of $12.33, suggesting a potential upside of 16.63%. Weyerhaeuser has a consensus price target of $35.00, suggesting a potential upside of 17.27%. Given Weyerhaeuser’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Weyerhaeuser is more favorable than Easterly Government Properties.

Dividends

Easterly Government Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.0%. Weyerhaeuser pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Easterly Government Properties pays out 557.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Weyerhaeuser pays out 152.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Easterly Government Properties and Weyerhaeuser”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Easterly Government Properties	$302.05 million	3.78	$18.80 million	$0.19	55.66
Weyerhaeuser	$7.12 billion	3.04	$396.00 million	$0.55	54.27

Weyerhaeuser has higher revenue and earnings than Easterly Government Properties. Weyerhaeuser is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Easterly Government Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Easterly Government Properties has a beta of 0.73, indicating that its share price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Weyerhaeuser has a beta of 1.43, indicating that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

86.5% of Easterly Government Properties shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.0% of Weyerhaeuser shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.1% of Easterly Government Properties shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Weyerhaeuser shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Easterly Government Properties and Weyerhaeuser’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Easterly Government Properties	6.25%	1.34%	0.62%
Weyerhaeuser	5.56%	3.86%	2.30%

Summary

Weyerhaeuser beats Easterly Government Properties on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Easterly Government Properties

Easterly Government Properties, Inc. (NYSE: DEA) is based in Washington, D.C., and focuses primarily on the acquisition, development and management of Class A commercial properties that are leased to the U.S. Government. Easterly’s experienced management team brings specialized insight into the strategy and needs of mission-critical U.S. Government agencies for properties leased to such agencies either directly or through the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA).

About Weyerhaeuser

Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world's largest private owners of timberlands, began operations in 1900. We own or control approximately 11 million acres of timberlands in the U.S. and manage additional timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada. We manage these timberlands on a sustainable basis in compliance with internationally recognized forestry standards. We are also one of the largest manufacturers of wood products in North America. Our company is a real estate investment trust. In 2022, we generated $10.2 billion in net sales and employed approximately 9,200 people who serve customers worldwide. Our common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WY.