Sunstone Hotel Investors (SHO) Competitors

Host Hotels & Resorts (NASDAQ:HST) and Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and valuation.

Which has higher earnings & valuation, HST or SHO?

Host Hotels & Resorts has higher revenue and earnings than Sunstone Hotel Investors. Host Hotels & Resorts is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sunstone Hotel Investors, 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
Host Hotels & Resorts	$5.68B	2.00	$697M	$0.96	17.06
Sunstone Hotel Investors	$905.81M	1.98	$43.26M	$0.10	90.05

Which has more risk and volatility, HST or SHO?

Host Hotels & Resorts has a beta of 1.31, indicating that its share price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sunstone Hotel Investors has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its share price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is HST or SHO more profitable?

Host Hotels & Resorts has a net margin of 11.66% compared to Sunstone Hotel Investors' net margin of 3.85%. Host Hotels & Resorts' return on equity of 10.11% beat Sunstone Hotel Investors' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Host Hotels & Resorts	11.66%	10.11%	5.26%
Sunstone Hotel Investors	3.85%	1.93%	1.14%

Do analysts recommend HST or SHO?

Host Hotels & Resorts currently has a consensus price target of $17.96, indicating a potential upside of 9.68%. Sunstone Hotel Investors has a consensus price target of $8.93, indicating a potential downside of 0.85%. Given Host Hotels & Resorts' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Host Hotels & Resorts is more favorable than Sunstone Hotel Investors.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Host Hotels & Resorts	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.46
Sunstone Hotel Investors	2 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Does the media prefer HST or SHO?

In the previous week, Host Hotels & Resorts had 21 more articles in the media than Sunstone Hotel Investors. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for Host Hotels & Resorts and 1 mentions for Sunstone Hotel Investors. Host Hotels & Resorts' average media sentiment score of 1.02 beat Sunstone Hotel Investors' score of 0.00 indicating that Host Hotels & Resorts is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Host Hotels & Resorts	10 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Sunstone Hotel Investors	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of HST or SHO?

98.5% of Host Hotels & Resorts shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.4% of Sunstone Hotel Investors shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Host Hotels & Resorts shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Sunstone Hotel Investors shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is HST or SHO a better dividend stock?

Host Hotels & Resorts pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Sunstone Hotel Investors pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Host Hotels & Resorts pays out 83.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Sunstone Hotel Investors pays out 360.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Host Hotels & Resorts has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Sunstone Hotel Investors has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Host Hotels & Resorts is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Host Hotels & Resorts beats Sunstone Hotel Investors on 16 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.