Retail Opportunity Investments (ROIC) Competitors

Retail Opportunity Investments (NASDAQ:ROIC) and American Assets Trust (NYSE:AAT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, community ranking, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, media sentiment, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Is ROIC or AAT a better dividend stock?

Retail Opportunity Investments pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. American Assets Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. Retail Opportunity Investments pays out 200.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. American Assets Trust pays out 150.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. American Assets Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do analysts recommend ROIC or AAT?

Retail Opportunity Investments presently has a consensus target price of $14.38, suggesting a potential upside of 12.30%. American Assets Trust has a consensus target price of $22.00, suggesting a potential downside of 12.77%. Given Retail Opportunity Investments' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Retail Opportunity Investments is more favorable than American Assets Trust.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Retail Opportunity Investments	1 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25
American Assets Trust	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Which has more volatility & risk, ROIC or AAT?

Retail Opportunity Investments has a beta of 1.45, suggesting that its stock price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Assets Trust has a beta of 1.29, suggesting that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is ROIC or AAT more profitable?

American Assets Trust has a net margin of 12.05% compared to Retail Opportunity Investments' net margin of 10.40%. American Assets Trust's return on equity of 4.60% beat Retail Opportunity Investments' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Retail Opportunity Investments	10.40%	2.57%	1.15%
American Assets Trust	12.05%	4.60%	1.78%

Does the media prefer ROIC or AAT?

In the previous week, Retail Opportunity Investments had 15 more articles in the media than American Assets Trust. MarketBeat recorded 21 mentions for Retail Opportunity Investments and 6 mentions for American Assets Trust. American Assets Trust's average media sentiment score of 0.97 beat Retail Opportunity Investments' score of 0.81 indicating that American Assets Trust is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Retail Opportunity Investments	7 Very Positive mention(s)	8 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
American Assets Trust	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, ROIC or AAT?

American Assets Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Retail Opportunity Investments. American Assets Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Retail Opportunity Investments, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Retail Opportunity Investments	$327.73M	4.98	$34.53M	$0.30	42.67
American Assets Trust	$441.16M	3.48	$64.69M	$0.89	28.34

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of ROIC or AAT?

97.2% of Retail Opportunity Investments shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.4% of American Assets Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 3.0% of Retail Opportunity Investments shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 37.3% of American Assets Trust shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in ROIC or AAT?

American Assets Trust received 45 more outperform votes than Retail Opportunity Investments when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.61% of users gave American Assets Trust an outperform vote while only 55.16% of users gave Retail Opportunity Investments an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Retail Opportunity Investments	Outperform Votes 326 55.16%	Underperform Votes 265 44.84%
American Assets Trust	Outperform Votes 371 66.61%	Underperform Votes 186 33.39%

Summary

American Assets Trust beats Retail Opportunity Investments on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.