Reviewing Clipper Realty (NYSE:CLPR) & Orchid Island Capital (NYSE:ORC)

Clipper Realty (NYSE:CLPR) and Orchid Island Capital (NYSE:ORC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Clipper Realty and Orchid Island Capital, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Clipper Realty	1	1	0	0	1.50
Orchid Island Capital	0	1	1	0	2.50

Orchid Island Capital has a consensus target price of $9.50, suggesting a potential upside of 18.53%. Given Orchid Island Capital’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Orchid Island Capital is more favorable than Clipper Realty.

Dividends

Clipper Realty pays an annual dividend of $0.38 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.6%. Orchid Island Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 18.0%. Clipper Realty pays out -131.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Orchid Island Capital pays out 137.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

37.6% of Clipper Realty shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.7% of Orchid Island Capital shares are held by institutional investors. 50.8% of Clipper Realty shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Orchid Island Capital shares are held 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.

Profitability

This table compares Clipper Realty and Orchid Island Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Clipper Realty	-2.17%	-85.95%	-0.25%
Orchid Island Capital	N/A	-4.08%	-0.46%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Clipper Realty and Orchid Island Capital”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Clipper Realty	$138.21 million	0.46	-$5.90 million	($0.29)	-13.67
Orchid Island Capital	$177.57 million	3.60	-$39.23 million	$1.05	7.63

Clipper Realty has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Orchid Island Capital. Clipper Realty is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Orchid Island Capital, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Clipper Realty has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Orchid Island Capital has a beta of 1.82, indicating that its stock price is 82% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Orchid Island Capital beats Clipper Realty on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Clipper Realty

Clipper Realty Inc. (NYSE: CLPR) is a self-administered and self-managed real estate company that acquires, owns, manages, operates, and repositions multifamily residential and commercial properties in the New York metropolitan area, with a portfolio in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

About Orchid Island Capital

Orchid Island Capital, Inc., a specialty finance company, invests in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) in the United States. The company’s RMBS is backed by single-family residential mortgage loans, referred as Agency RMBS. Its portfolio includes traditional pass-through Agency RMBS, such as mortgage pass through certificates and collateralized mortgage obligations; and structured Agency RMBS comprising interest only securities, inverse interest only securities, and principal only securities. The company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT) for the United States federal income tax purposes. As a result, it would not be subject to corporate income tax on that portion of its net income that is distributed to stockholders, if it annually distributes dividends equal to at least 90% of its REIT taxable income to its stockholders. Orchid Island Capital, Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Vero Beach, Florida.