Contrasting Anywhere Real Estate (NYSE:HOUS) and Safestore (OTCMKTS:SFSHF)

Safestore (OTCMKTS:SFSHF) and Anywhere Real Estate (NYSE:HOUS) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Safestore and Anywhere Real Estate, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Safestore	0	1	0	0	2.00
Anywhere Real Estate	0	3	0	0	2.00

Anywhere Real Estate has a consensus target price of $9.13, indicating a potential downside of 9.60%. Given Anywhere Real Estate’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Anywhere Real Estate is more favorable than Safestore.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

97.6% of Anywhere Real Estate shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.9% of Anywhere Real Estate shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Safestore and Anywhere Real Estate’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Safestore	N/A	N/A	N/A
Anywhere Real Estate	-1.87%	-4.57%	-1.24%

Risk & Volatility

Safestore has a beta of 0.77, indicating that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Anywhere Real Estate has a beta of 1.75, indicating that its stock price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Safestore and Anywhere Real Estate”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Safestore	$284.91 million	6.75	$474.94 million	N/A	N/A
Anywhere Real Estate	$5.69 billion	0.20	-$128.00 million	($0.98)	-10.30

Safestore has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Anywhere Real Estate.

About Safestore

Safestore is the UK’s largest self storage group with 190 stores on 31 October 2023, comprising 133 wholly owned stores in the UK (including 73 in London and the South East with the remainder in key metropolitan areas such as Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, and Bristol), 29 wholly owned stores in the Paris region, 11 stores in Spain, 11 stores in the Netherlands and 6 stores in Belgium. In addition, the Group operates 7 stores in Germany under a Joint Venture agreement with Carlyle. Safestore operates more self storage sites inside the M25 and in central Paris than any competitor providing more proximity to customers in the wealthiest and more densely populated UK and French markets. Safestore was founded in the UK in 1998. It acquired the French business “Une Pièce en Plus” (“UPP”) in 2004 which was founded in 1998 by the current Safestore Group CEO Frederic Vecchioli. Safestore has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2007. It entered the FTSE 250 index in October 2015. The Group provides storage to around 90,000 personal and business customers. As of 31 October 2023, Safestore had a maximum lettable area (“MLA”) of 8.090 million sq ft (excluding the expansion pipeline stores) of which 6.231 million sq ft was occupied. Safestore employs around 750 people in the UK, Paris, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

About Anywhere Real Estate

Anywhere Real Estate Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides residential real estate services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Anywhere Brands, Anywhere Advisors, and Anywhere Integrated Services. The Anywhere Brands segment franchises the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Coldwell Banker Commercial, Corcoran, ERA, and Sotheby's International Realty brand names. This segment also includes global relocation services under Cartus brand name; and lead generation activities. The Anywhere Advisors segment operates a full-service residential real estate brokerage business under the Coldwell Banker, Corcoran, and Sotheby's International Realty brand names to assist home buyers and sellers in the listing, marketing, selling, and finding homes. This segment also operates real estate auction joint venture. The Anywhere Integrated Services segment provides full-service title, escrow, and settlement services to consumers, real estate companies, corporations, and financial institutions primarily in support of residential real estate transactions. This segment also originates and markets its mortgage lending services to other real estate brokerage companies. The company was formerly known as Realogy Holdings Corp. and changed its name to Anywhere Real Estate Inc. in June 2022. Anywhere Real Estate Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Madison, New Jersey.