LIVE
ARE
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. · REITs
$51.03
+11.32% this month
VERSUS
⟷
COMPARE
EQIX
Equinix, Inc. · REITs
$1,092.19
+4.17% this month
Scoreboard verdict
Across AI score, momentum, valuation, upside, operating margin
ARE
1
EQIX
4
Comparison scoreboard
EQIX LEADS 4/5AI Score
ARE 25.2
EQIX ✓50.1
1Y Return
ARE -28.35%
EQIX ✓+23.17%
Fwd P/E
ARE ✓-60.42
EQIX 54.93
Target Up.
ARE -3.14%
EQIX ✓+13.38%
Op. Margin
ARE 15.89%
EQIX ✓24.34%
Metrics last refreshed: 6/20/2026
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 6/20/2026
EQIX holds the edge across 4 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. EQIX has delivered stronger 1-year price return (+23.17% vs -28.35%), though ARE trades at the lower forward P/E (-60.42x vs 54.93x). EQIX leads on both revenue growth (12.10%) and operating margin (24.34%), suggesting a stronger fundamental setup on both dimensions. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for EQIX (+13.38%) than for ARE (-3.14%).
Normalized 1Y performance
ARE
EQIX
Recent returns
ARE
EQIX
Analyst price targets & sentiment
ARE
Price target range
analyst mean$51.50
current price$51.03
-3.1% upside to analyst mean
EQIX
Price target range
analyst mean$1,197.11
current price$1,092.19
+13.4% 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 score | 25.2 | 50.1 |
| AI rank | #2835 | #469 |
| Latest close | $51.03 | $1,092.19 |
| 1M return | +11.32% | +4.17% |
| 6M return | +7.30% | +46.04% |
| 1Y return | -28.35% | +23.17% |
$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 | $7.2K (-28.0%) started 2025-06-18 | $12.32K (+23.2%) started 2025-06-18 |
| 5Y ago | $3.74K (-62.6%) started 2021-06-21 | $15.32K (+53.2%) started 2021-06-21 |
| 10Y ago | $9.8K (-2.0%) started 2016-06-20 | $41.21K (+312.1%) started 2016-06-20 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
Valuation & upside potential
| Metric | ARE | EQIX |
|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $9.27B | $104.13B |
| Trailing P/E | 102.99 | 72.97 |
| Forward P/E | -60.42 | 54.93 |
| Price/Sales | N/A | N/A |
| EV/Revenue | 8.65 | 13.24 |
| Analyst target | $51.50 | $1,197.11 |
| Target upside | -3.14% | +13.38% |
Growth, profitability & risk
| Metric | ARE | EQIX |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth | -11.50% | 12.10% |
| Earnings growth | N/A | 20.00% |
| EPS growth | N/A | +20.00% |
| FCF margin | +48.08% | +28.61% |
| Operating margin | 15.89% | 24.34% |
| Profit margin | -36.14% | 14.93% |
| ROIC proxy | -4.14% | 10.06% |
| Return on equity | -4.14% | 10.06% |
| Dividend yield | 5.42% | 1.87% |
| Beta | 1.20 | 0.97 |
| Debt/equity | 66.51 | 162.96 |
| Current ratio | 0.80 | 1.18 |
| Quick ratio | 0.66 | 0.55 |
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 drawdown53.79%
EQIX max drawdown19.90%
ARE max wkly drop28.48%
EQIX max wkly drop15.94%
5Y risk snapshot
ARE max drawdown79.30%
EQIX max drawdown41.77%
ARE max wkly drop28.48%
EQIX max wkly drop15.94%
10Y risk snapshot
ARE max drawdown79.30%
EQIX max drawdown41.77%
ARE max wkly drop28.48%
EQIX max wkly drop18.45%
Performance metrics by period
| Period | Metric | ARE | EQIX |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growth | -28.01% | +23.15% |
| CAGR | -28.04% | +23.19% | |
| Sharpe ratio | -0.61 | 0.76 | |
| Max drawdown | 53.79% | 19.90% | |
| Max daily drop | 19.17% | 9.56% | |
| Max wkly drop | 28.48% | 15.94% | |
| 5Y | Growth | -68.17% | +42.48% |
| CAGR | -20.49% | +7.35% | |
| Sharpe ratio | -0.66 | 0.23 | |
| Max drawdown | 79.30% | 41.77% | |
| Max daily drop | 19.17% | 9.56% | |
| Max wkly drop | 28.48% | 15.94% | |
| 10Y | Growth | -30.09% | +244.62% |
| CAGR | -3.52% | +13.18% | |
| Sharpe ratio | -0.13 | 0.43 | |
| Max drawdown | 79.30% | 41.77% | |
| Max daily drop | 19.17% | 12.66% | |
| Max wkly drop | 28.48% | 18.45% |
Business comparison
| Category | ARE | EQIX |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. | Equinix, Inc. |
| Sector | Real Estate | Real Estate |
| Industry | N/A | N/A |
| 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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