Data as of:
LIVE
ARE
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. · REITs
$56.34
+22.91% this month
VERSUS
COMPARE
EQIX
Equinix, Inc. · REITs
$1,025.94
-5.45% this month
Comparison scoreboard
EQIX LEADS 5/5AI Scorei
ARE 25.2
EQIX ✓52.7
1Y Returni
ARE -33.83%
EQIX ✓+31.74%
Fwd P/Ei
ARE -63.14
EQIX ✓55.87
Target Up.i
ARE +3.64%
EQIX ✓+18.21%
Op. Margini
ARE 17.28%
EQIX ✓27.02%
Metrics last refreshed: 9/18/2026
Quick take
ARE vs EQIX Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
ARE and EQIX are both specialty REITs serving critical infrastructure needs — life science lab space and data center colocation. Equinix has benefited from extraordinary AI infrastructure demand driving data center power demand. Alexandria faces near-term headwinds from biotech funding cycles and lab space oversupply. Long-term, both serve essential, hard-to-replicate infrastructure needs with strong tenant bases and annual escalations.
ARE vs EQIX — Alexandria Real Estate (the dominant life science cluster REIT owning irreplaceable lab space in Boston, San Francisco, and San Diego serving biotech and pharma tenants navigating post-COVID supply normalization) versus Equinix (the world's largest neutral colocation data center REIT in 33 countries benefiting from AI infrastructure demand driving unprecedented hyperscaler data center expansion).
Live analysis · updated 9/18/2026
EQIX holds the edge across 5 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. EQIX leads on both 1-year return (+31.74%) and forward P/E quality (55.87x vs -63.14x for ARE), a relatively favorable combination of momentum and valuation. EQIX leads on both revenue growth (16.70%) and operating margin (27.02%), suggesting a stronger fundamental setup on both dimensions. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for EQIX (+18.21%) than for ARE (+3.64%).
Normalized 1Y performance
ARE
EQIX
Recent returns
ARE
EQIX
Analyst price targets & sentiment
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
ARE
Price target range
analyst mean$53.00
current price$56.34
+3.6% upside to analyst mean
EQIX
Price target range
analyst mean$1,234.55
current price$1,025.94
+18.2% upside to analyst mean
Who should consider this stock?
ARE may suit investors who:
- believe in life science research infrastructure as a multi-decade secular growth theme — drug discovery, genomics, and biotech innovation require irreplaceable cluster lab space that cannot be replicated
- see Alexandria's current lab vacancy headwinds as a cycle trough — biotech funding will recover, speculative supply will be absorbed, and NOI growth will re-accelerate
- value Alexandria's tenant quality (Moderna, BMS, Eli Lilly) and long lease durations providing stable cash flows even during biotech market corrections
- are comfortable with biotech funding cycle sensitivity, near-term lab vacancy headwinds, and slower current NOI growth vs Equinix's AI tailwind-driven expansion
EQIX may suit investors who:
- want maximum AI infrastructure theme exposure in the REIT sector — Equinix is the most direct data center REIT beneficiary of hyperscaler AI compute expansion
- value Equinix's network effect interconnection moat — colocation facilities where every major cloud and enterprise connects have compounding value as AI interconnection demand grows
- prefer global geographic diversification across 33 countries vs concentrated US life science market exposure
- are comfortable with premium AFFO valuation, power availability constraints limiting near-term supply addition, and hyperscaler owned-campus buildout reducing colocation demand at the margins
Performance & AI score
| Metric | ARE | EQIX |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 25.2 | 52.7 |
| AI ranki | #2896 | #378 |
| Latest closei | $56.34 | $1,025.94 |
| 1M returni | +22.91% | -5.45% |
| 6M returni | +13.77% | +5.25% |
| 1Y returni | -33.83% | +31.74% |
$10,000 invested — hypothetical growth (dividends reinvested)
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | ARE | EQIX |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $6.44K (-35.6%) started 2025-09-18 | $13.06K (+30.6%) started 2025-09-18 |
| 5Y ago | $3.88K (-61.2%) started 2021-09-20 | $13.82K (+38.2%) started 2021-09-20 |
| 10Y ago | $9.63K (-3.7%) started 2016-09-19 | $39.06K (+290.6%) started 2016-09-19 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
Valuation & upside potential
| Metric | ARE | EQIX |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $8.8B | $103.05B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 102.99 | 67.12 |
| Forward P/Ei | -63.14 | 55.87 |
| Price/Salesi | N/A | N/A |
| EV/Revenuei | 8.88 | 12.67 |
| Analyst targeti | $53.00 | $1,234.55 |
| Target upsidei | +3.64% | +18.21% |
Growth, profitability & risk
| Metric | ARE | EQIX |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | -11.90% | 16.70% |
| Earnings growthi | N/A | 28.80% |
| EPS growthi | N/A | +28.80% |
| FCF margini | +47.35% | +38.13% |
| Operating margini | 17.28% | 27.02% |
| Profit margini | -36.08% | 15.48% |
| ROIC proxyi | -4.08% | 10.73% |
| Return on equityi | -4.08% | 10.73% |
| Dividend yieldi | 5.81% | 1.98% |
| Payout ratioi | 689.47% | 126.77% |
| Dividend growth streaki | No increase yet | No increase yet |
| Betai | 1.17 | 0.97 |
| Debt/equityi | 68.67 | 162.22 |
| Current ratioi | 2.35 | 1.13 |
| Quick ratioi | 1.98 | 0.61 |
Correlation
Over the past year, ARE and EQIX have moved barely in the same direction (correlation of 0.08), based on daily returns.
1Y
0.08
-1.0+1.0
5Y
0.40
-1.0+1.0
10Y
0.47
-1.0+1.0
Drawdown & downside risk
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
1Y risk snapshot
ARE max drawdowni53.79%
EQIX max drawdowni14.17%
ARE max wkly dropi28.48%
EQIX max wkly dropi8.47%
5Y risk snapshot
ARE max drawdowni79.30%
EQIX max drawdowni40.23%
ARE max wkly dropi28.48%
EQIX max wkly dropi15.94%
10Y risk snapshot
ARE max drawdowni79.30%
EQIX max drawdowni41.77%
ARE max wkly dropi28.48%
EQIX max wkly dropi18.45%
Performance metrics by period
| Period | Metric | ARE | EQIX |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -35.57% | +30.64% |
| CAGRi | -35.60% | +30.67% | |
| Volatilityi | 47.24% | 24.80% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.79 | 1.02 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.99 | 1.67 | |
| Max drawdowni | 53.79% | 14.17% | |
| Current drawdowni | 35.57% | 8.06% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 38.44% | 4.52% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 40.12% | 5.84% | |
| Max daily dropi | 19.17% | 3.94% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 28.48% | 8.47% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -66.70% | +29.02% |
| CAGRi | -19.76% | +5.23% | |
| Volatilityi | 34.37% | 27.81% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.60 | 0.16 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.80 | 0.23 | |
| Max drawdowni | 79.30% | 40.23% | |
| Current drawdowni | 71.13% | 8.06% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 44.67% | 12.30% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 49.05% | 14.75% | |
| Max daily dropi | 19.17% | 9.56% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 28.48% | 15.94% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | -30.58% | +228.48% |
| CAGRi | -3.59% | +12.63% | |
| Volatilityi | 29.86% | 27.36% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.12 | 0.41 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.17 | 0.59 | |
| Max drawdowni | 79.30% | 41.77% | |
| Current drawdowni | 71.13% | 8.06% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 24.48% | 10.32% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 34.92% | 13.24% | |
| Max daily dropi | 19.17% | 12.66% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 28.48% | 18.45% |
Business comparison
| Category | ARE | EQIX |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. | Equinix, Inc. |
| Sector | Real Estate | Real Estate |
| Industry | REIT - Office | REIT - Specialty |
| Core business | Alexandria Real Estate Equities is the dominant life science REIT owning Class A office and laboratory space in major life science clusters — Boston/Cambridge, San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, Research Triangle, and Seattle. Alexandria's campus-focused model aggregates biotech, pharmaceutical, and research tenants in proximity clusters that benefit from talent sharing, collaboration, and proximity to academic medical centers. Tenants include Moderna, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, and hundreds of biotechnology companies at various stages. Alexandria generates revenue through long-term triple-net-like leases with annual rent escalations. | Equinix is the world's largest data center REIT owning 260+ data centers in 70+ cities across 33 countries — operating as neutral colocation facilities where enterprises, cloud providers, and networks interconnect. Equinix's business model earns colocation revenue (space, power, cooling) plus high-margin interconnection revenue from direct cross-connects between customers. Equinix has benefited enormously from AI-driven data center demand as hyperscalers expand AI training and inference capacity. The company has a $100B+ market cap and is one of the largest US REITs. |
| Investor focus | Investors focus on Alexandria's same-store NOI growth, vacancy rates in core life science markets, biotech tenant financial health (funding conditions), and development pipeline lease-up pace. | Investors focus on Equinix's revenue growth, interconnection revenue expansion, AI-driven power capacity demand, global hyperscaler leasing activity, and xScale (hyperscale joint venture) development pipeline. |
ARE strengths
- Life science cluster monopoly: Alexandria owns irreplaceable lab space in the top US life science clusters — location proximity to Harvard, MIT, UCSF, and major pharma is a moat that cannot be replicated outside these specific markets
- Tenant diversification across biotech ecosystem: Alexandria's tenant base spans early-stage biotechs, large pharma anchors, and medical device companies — diversified risk across the innovation ecosystem
- Annual rent escalations built into leases: triple-net-like leases with 3%+ annual rent escalations provide visible NOI growth even without lease-up of vacant space
EQIX strengths
- Network effect data center moat: Equinix's colocation facilities are valuable specifically because every major cloud, network, and enterprise already connects there — each new participant increases the interconnection value for existing participants
- AI infrastructure demand tailwind: hyperscaler AI compute buildout is driving unprecedented data center power demand — Equinix's sites adjacent to hyperscale campuses are in high demand for enterprise/edge AI inference
- Global footprint in 33 countries: Equinix's 260+ data centers across 6 continents enable multinational enterprises to build globally consistent infrastructure on a single platform — geographic diversification that US-focused data center REITs cannot match
Risks to watch — ARE
- Biotech funding environment sensitivity: early-stage biotech tenants depend on VC and public market funding — a sustained biotech funding downturn creates tenant defaults and lab space oversupply in core markets (2022-2023 biotech correction created real vacancy headwinds)
- Oversupply in Boston and San Francisco lab markets: speculative lab space development during COVID boom created supply that pressured vacancy rates in 2023-2024 — lease-up timeline is the primary investor concern
- Higher interest rate sensitivity than average REIT: Alexandria's development pipeline and floating rate debt exposure creates more interest rate sensitivity than stabilized REIT peers
Risks to watch — EQIX
- Power availability constraints: AI data center demand has outpaced power grid capacity in key markets — Equinix's growth is constrained by utility interconnection timelines in power-constrained markets like Northern Virginia, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt
- xScale hyperscale competition: hyperscalers are building owned mega-campus data centers in addition to leasing from Equinix — long-term, hyperscalers may co-locate less as owned capacity grows
- Premium valuation on AFFO multiple: Equinix trades at a premium to REIT peers on AFFO — any slowdown in AI-driven demand could compress the multiple significantly
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