Comparing St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) and CBRE Group (NYSE:CBRE)

CBRE Group (NYSE:CBRE) and St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability, risk, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for CBRE Group and St. Joe, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CBRE Group	0	1	9	0	2.90
St. Joe	0	0	1	0	3.00

CBRE Group presently has a consensus price target of $185.44, suggesting a potential upside of 44.01%. Given CBRE Group’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe CBRE Group is more favorable than St. Joe.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

98.4% of CBRE Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.7% of St. Joe shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of CBRE Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of St. Joe shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CBRE Group and St. Joe”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CBRE Group	$40.55 billion	0.92	$1.16 billion	$4.67	27.57
St. Joe	$513.20 million	7.71	$115.63 million	$2.12	33.02

CBRE Group has higher revenue and earnings than St. Joe. CBRE Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than St. Joe, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

CBRE Group has a beta of 1.23, indicating that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, St. Joe has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares CBRE Group and St. Joe’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CBRE Group	3.08%	26.31%	7.66%
St. Joe	22.32%	15.66%	8.02%

Summary

CBRE Group beats St. Joe on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CBRE Group

CBRE Group, Inc. operates as a commercial real estate services and investment company in the United States, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The Advisory Services segment offers strategic advice and execution to owners, investors, and occupiers of real estate in connection with leasing of offices, and industrial and retail space; clients fully integrated property sales services under the CBRE Capital Markets brand; clients commercial mortgage and structured financing services; originates and sells commercial mortgage loans; property management services, such as marketing, building engineering, accounting, and financial services on a contractual basis for owners of and investors in office, industrial, and retail properties; and valuation services that include market value appraisals, litigation support, discounted cash flow analyses, and feasibility studies, as well as consulting services, such as property condition reports, hotel advisory, and environmental consulting. The Global Workplace Solutions segment provides facilities management, including day-to-day management of client-occupied space, headquarters, regional offices, administrative offices, data centers and other critical facilities, manufacturing and laboratory facilities, and distribution facilities and retail space; and project management services comprising building consulting, program, and project and cost management services under the Turner & Townsend brand name. The Real Estate Investments segment offers investment management services under the CBRE Investment Management brand to pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, foundations, endowments, and other institutional investors; and development services, such as real estate development and investment activities under the Trammell Crow Company and Telford Homes brands to users and investors in commercial real estate, and for their own account. CBRE Group, Inc. was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

About St. Joe

The St. Joe Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate development, asset management, and operating company in Northwest Florida. It operates through three segments: Residential, Hospitality, and Commercial. The Residential segment engages in the development of communities into homesites for sale to homebuilders and on a limited basis to retail customers. This segment primarily sells developed homesites, completed homes, parcels of entitled or undeveloped land or homesites, and a homesite residual on homebuilder, as well as offers title insurance and marketing services. The Hospitality segment owns and operates a private membership club, golf courses, beach clubs, retail outlets, marinas, and other entertainment assets. This segment also engages in the hotel, food and beverage, and gulf-front vacation rental operations, as well as provides management services. The Commercial segment engages in leasing of commercial property, multi-family, a senior living community, and other assets. This segment is also involved in the planning, development, entitlement, management, and sale of commercial and rural land holdings for retail, office, hotel, senior living, multi-family, self-storage, and industrial uses; and grows and sells pulpwood, sawtimber, and other forest products. The company was incorporated in 1936 and is based in Panama City Beach, Florida.