Soho China (OTCMKTS:SOHOF) and St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) Critical Comparison

St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) and Soho China (OTCMKTS:SOHOF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares St. Joe and Soho China’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
St. Joe	21.40%	13.96%	6.78%
Soho China	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for St. Joe and Soho China, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
St. Joe	0	0	1	0	3.00
Soho China	0	0	0	0	0.00

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares St. Joe and Soho China”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
St. Joe	$402.70 million	9.38	$74.19 million	$1.80	36.35
Soho China	$214.29 million	1.57	-$15.78 million	N/A	N/A

St. Joe has higher revenue and earnings than Soho China.

Risk & Volatility

St. Joe has a beta of 1.32, suggesting that its stock price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Soho China has a beta of 0.11, suggesting that its stock price is 89% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and 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, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

St. Joe beats Soho China on 11 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Soho China

SOHO China Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the real estate development, and property leasing and management activities in the People's Republic of China. It also operates serviced hotels. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Beijing, China.