Critical Review: Sino Land (OTCMKTS:SNLAY) & FirstService (NASDAQ:FSV)

Sino Land (OTCMKTS:SNLAY) and FirstService (NASDAQ:FSV) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Volatility & Risk

Sino Land has a beta of 0.34, suggesting that its share price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FirstService has a beta of 0.99, suggesting that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

69.4% of FirstService shares are owned by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Sino Land and FirstService”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sino Land	$1.05 billion	11.65	$516.04 million	N/A	N/A
FirstService	$5.22 billion	1.60	$134.38 million	$3.12	58.70

Sino Land has higher earnings, but lower revenue than FirstService.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Sino Land and FirstService, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sino Land	0	0	0	0	0.00
FirstService	0	3	3	0	2.50

FirstService has a consensus target price of $217.75, suggesting a potential upside of 18.89%. Given FirstService’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe FirstService is more favorable than Sino Land.

Profitability

This table compares Sino Land and FirstService’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sino Land	N/A	N/A	N/A
FirstService	2.61%	18.24%	5.17%

Dividends

Sino Land pays an annual dividend of $0.15 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. FirstService pays an annual dividend of $1.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. FirstService pays out 35.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. FirstService has raised its dividend for 7 consecutive years.

Summary

FirstService beats Sino Land on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sino Land

Sino Land Company Limited, an investment holding company, invests in, develops, manages, and trades in properties. It operates through six segments: Property Sales, Property Rental, Property Management and Other Services, Hotel Operations, Investments in Securities, and Financing. The company's property portfolio includes shopping malls, offices, industrial buildings, residentials and car parks. In addition, it provides cleaning, building construction and management, financing, administration, security, mortgage loan financing, secretarial, management, project management, securities investment, consultancy, and deposit placing services, as well as operates hotels. Further, the company engages in real estate agency and trustee related services. The company operates approximately 19.5 million square feet of attributable floor area in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sydney. Sino Land Company Limited was incorporated in 1971 and is based in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. The company is a subsidiary of Tsim Sha Tsui Properties Limited.

About FirstService

FirstService Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides residential property management and other essential property services to residential and commercial customers in the United States and Canada. It operates through two segments: FirstService Residential and FirstService Brands. The FirstService Residential segment offers services for private residential communities, such as condominiums, co-operatives, homeowner associations, master-planned communities, active adult and lifestyle communities, and various other residential developments. This segment provides a range of ancillary services, including on-site staffing for building engineering and maintenance, full-service amenity management, and security and concierge/front desk; and financial services comprising cash management, other banking transaction-related, and specialized property insurance brokerage. In addition, this segment offers energy management solutions and advisory services, and resale processing services. Its FirstService Brands segment operates and provides essential property services to residential and commercial customers through franchise networks; and company-owned operations, including California Closets, Paul Davis Restoration, and CertaPro Painters operations. It provides residential and commercial restoration, painting, and floor coverings design and installation services; custom-designed and installed closet, and home storage solutions; home inspection services; and fire protection and related services. This segment offers its services primarily under the Paul Davis Restoration, Roofing Corp of America, First Onsite property Restoration, Century Fire Protection, CertaPro Painters, California Closets, Pillar to Post Home Inspectors, and Floor Coverings International brand names. FirstService Corporation was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.