Critical Comparison: Safestore (OTCMKTS:SFSHF) and Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE:JLL)

Safestore (OTCMKTS:SFSHF) and Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE:JLL) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Safestore and Jones Lang LaSalle’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
Jones Lang LaSalle	2.28%	10.63%	4.31%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Safestore and Jones Lang LaSalle, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Safestore	0	0	0	0	0.00
Jones Lang LaSalle	0	4	4	1	2.67

Jones Lang LaSalle has a consensus target price of $335.83, suggesting a potential upside of 5.66%. Given Jones Lang LaSalle’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Jones Lang LaSalle is more favorable than Safestore.

Dividends

Safestore pays an annual dividend of $0.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Jones Lang LaSalle pays an annual dividend of $0.86 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Jones Lang LaSalle pays out 6.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

94.8% of Jones Lang LaSalle shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Jones Lang LaSalle shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Safestore has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Jones Lang LaSalle has a beta of 1.46, suggesting that its stock price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Safestore and Jones Lang LaSalle”s revenue, earnings per share 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
Jones Lang LaSalle	$25.32 billion	0.59	$546.80 million	$13.04	24.38

Jones Lang LaSalle has higher revenue and earnings than Safestore.

Summary

Jones Lang LaSalle beats Safestore on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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 Jones Lang LaSalle

Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated operates as a commercial real estate and investment management company. It engages in the buying, building, occupying, managing, and investing in a commercial, industrial, hotel, residential, and retail properties in Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers a range of real estate services, including agency leasing, tenant representation, property management, advisory, and consulting services; and capital market services, such as equity and debt advisory, loan sales, equity advisory, loan servicing, merger and acquisition, corporate advisory, and investment sales and advisory services. It also provides on-site management services for office, industrial, retail, multifamily residential, and various other properties; integrated facilities management services; designing, building, management, and consulting services to tenants of leased space, owners in self-occupied buildings, and owners of real estate investments; and advisory, consulting, valuation, and energy and sustainability services. In addition, the company offers investment management services to institutional and retail investors, including high-net-worth individuals. It provides its services to real estate owners, occupiers, investors, and developers for various property types, including critical environments and data centers, offices, industrial and warehouses, residential properties, infrastructure projects, retail and shopping malls, logistics, and military housing and transportation centers; and hotels and hospitality, cultural, educational, government, healthcare and laboratory, and sports facilities. The company was formerly known as LaSalle Partners Incorporated and changed its name to Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated in March 1999. Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.