St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) & Great Portland Estates (OTCMKTS:GPEAF) Critical Survey

Great Portland Estates (OTCMKTS:GPEAF) and St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.

Risk and Volatility

Great Portland Estates has a beta of 0.44, meaning that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, St. Joe has a beta of 1.44, meaning that its stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Great Portland Estates and St. Joe”s gross revenue, earnings per share 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
St. Joe	$488.69 million	6.72	$74.19 million	$1.80	31.61

St. Joe has higher revenue and earnings than Great Portland Estates.

Profitability

This table compares Great Portland Estates and St. Joe’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
St. Joe	21.40%	14.10%	6.77%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Great Portland Estates and St. Joe, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Great Portland Estates	0	0	1	0	3.00
St. Joe	0	1	0	0	2.00

Institutional & Insider Ownership

86.7% of St. Joe shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of St. Joe shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

St. Joe beats Great Portland Estates on 7 of the 9 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 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.