Contrasting Great Portland Estates (OTCMKTS:GPEAF) & Forestar Group (NYSE:FOR)

Great Portland Estates (OTCMKTS:GPEAF) and Forestar Group (NYSE:FOR) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Great Portland Estates and Forestar Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Great Portland Estates	0	0	1	1	3.50
Forestar Group	0	1	3	1	3.00

Forestar Group has a consensus target price of $30.20, suggesting a potential upside of 17.05%. Given Forestar Group’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Forestar Group is more favorable than Great Portland Estates.

Profitability

This table compares Great Portland Estates and Forestar Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Great Portland Estates	N/A	N/A	N/A
Forestar Group	10.54%	10.02%	5.47%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

35.5% of Forestar Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Forestar Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Great Portland Estates has a beta of 0.43, suggesting that its share price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Forestar Group has a beta of 1.43, suggesting that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Great Portland Estates and Forestar Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Great Portland Estates	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Forestar Group	$1.51 billion	0.87	$203.40 million	$3.19	8.09

Forestar Group has higher revenue and earnings than Great Portland Estates.

Summary

Forestar Group beats Great Portland Estates on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Great Portland Estates

We are a FTSE 250 property investment and development company owning £2.5 billion of real estate in central London. We proactively manage our portfolio, flexing our activities in tune with London’s property cycle to deliver long-term out-performance. We create in-demand spaces that people want to be part of; helping our occupiers, local communities and the city to thrive.

About Forestar Group

Forestar Group Inc. operates as a residential lot development company in the United States. The company acquires land and develops infrastructure for single-family residential communities. It sells its residential single-family finished lots to local, regional, and national homebuilders. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Arlington, Texas. Forestar Group Inc. operates as a subsidiary of D.R. Horton, Inc.