Star (NASDAQ:STHO) versus Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE:CWK) Critical Comparison

Star (NASDAQ:STHO) and Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE:CWK) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Star and Cushman & Wakefield, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Star	1	0	0	0	1.00
Cushman & Wakefield	0	5	5	0	2.50

Cushman & Wakefield has a consensus target price of $18.06, suggesting a potential upside of 24.78%. Given Cushman & Wakefield’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Cushman & Wakefield is more favorable than Star.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

89.3% of Star shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.6% of Cushman & Wakefield shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.1% of Star shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Cushman & Wakefield shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Star and Cushman & Wakefield”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Star	$75.66 million	1.34	-$64.25 million	($4.89)	-1.72
Cushman & Wakefield	$10.29 billion	0.33	$88.20 million	$0.38	38.09

Cushman & Wakefield has higher revenue and earnings than Star. Star is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cushman & Wakefield, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Star and Cushman & Wakefield’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Star	-58.33%	0.14%	0.07%
Cushman & Wakefield	0.86%	15.02%	3.76%

Risk & Volatility

Star has a beta of 1.2, indicating that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cushman & Wakefield has a beta of 1.49, indicating that its share price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Cushman & Wakefield beats Star on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Star

Star Holdings engages in the non-ground lease related commercial real estate businesses in the United States. Its portfolio primarily comprises interest in the Asbury Park Waterfront and Magnolia Green residential development projects. Star Holdings is based in New York, New York.

About Cushman & Wakefield

Cushman & Wakefield Plc engages in the provision of commercial real estate services. It operates through the following geographical segments: Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Asia Pacific (APAC). The Americas segment consists of operations located in the United States, Canada and key markets in Latin America. The EMEA segment includes operations in the UK, France, Netherlands and other markets in Europe and the Middle East. The APAC segment comprises of operations in Australia, Singapore, China and other markets in the Asia Pacific region. The company was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.