Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta (OTCMKTS:VESTF) and St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) Critical Survey

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

Profitability

This table compares Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta and St. Joe’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta	N/A	N/A	N/A
St. Joe	22.45%	15.90%	8.09%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

21.0% of Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.7% of St. Joe shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of St. Joe shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta and St. Joe”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.15	26.33
St. Joe	$513.20 million	7.49	$115.63 million	$2.14	31.56

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

Dividends

Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta pays an annual dividend of $0.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. St. Joe pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta pays out 20.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. St. Joe pays out 29.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. St. Joe has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. St. Joe is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta and St. Joe, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta	0	0	0	0	0.00
St. Joe	0	0	1	0	3.00

Summary

St. Joe beats Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta

Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta, S.A.B. de C.V., together with its subsidiaries, acquires, develops, manages, operates, and leases industrial buildings and distribution facilities in Mexico. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico.

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.