Head-To-Head Comparison: Compass (NYSE:COMP) versus Howard Hughes (NYSE:HHH)

Howard Hughes (NYSE:HHH) and Compass (NYSE:COMP) are both mid-cap real estate companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, risk, institutional ownership and earnings.

Risk & Volatility

Howard Hughes has a beta of 1.14, indicating that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Compass has a beta of 2.36, indicating that its stock price is 136% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Howard Hughes and Compass, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Howard Hughes	1	2	0	0	1.67
Compass	0	6	8	1	2.67

Howard Hughes currently has a consensus price target of $79.00, indicating a potential upside of 19.16%. Compass has a consensus price target of $14.15, indicating a potential upside of 25.09%. Given Compass’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Compass is more favorable than Howard Hughes.

Profitability

This table compares Howard Hughes and Compass’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Howard Hughes	12.31%	8.49%	2.50%
Compass	0.63%	3.62%	1.37%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

93.8% of Howard Hughes shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.0% of Compass shares are owned by institutional investors. 47.7% of Howard Hughes shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Compass shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Howard Hughes and Compass”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Howard Hughes	$2.37 billion	1.67	$131.88 million	$4.94	13.42
Compass	$6.96 billion	1.23	-$58.50 million	$0.06	188.58

Howard Hughes has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Compass. Howard Hughes is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Compass, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Howard Hughes beats Compass on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes Holdings Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate development company in the United States. It operates in four segments: Operating Assets; Master Planned Communities (MPCs); Seaport; and Strategic Developments. The Operating Assets segment consists of developed or acquired retail, office, and multi-family properties along with other retail investments. Its MPCs segment develops, sells, and leases residential and commercial land designated for long-term community development projects in and around Las Vegas, Nevada; Houston, Texas; and Phoenix, Arizona. The Seaport segment is involved in the landlord operations, managed businesses, and events and sponsorships services of its restaurant, retail, and entertain properties in Pier 17, New York City; Historic Area/Uplands; and Tin Building, as well as in 250 Water Street and in the Jean-Georges restaurants. The Strategic Development segment develops and redevelops residential condominiums and commercial properties. It serves homebuilders. Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.

About Compass

Compass, Inc. provides real estate brokerage services in the United States. It operates a cloud-based platform that provides an integrated suite of software for customer relationship management, marketing, client service, operations, and other functionality in the real estate industry. The company offers mobile apps that allow agents to manage their business anytime and anywhere, as well as designs consumer-grade user interfaces, automated and simplified workflows for agent-client interactions, and insight-rich dashboards and reports. It also provides full-service title and escrow/settlement services to real estate agents' clients, real estate companies, and financial institutions relating to the closing of home purchases as well as the refinancing of home loans; and Compass Concierge, a program in which home sellers access to capital to front the cost of home improvement services. The company was formerly known as Urban Compass, Inc. and changed its name to Compass, Inc. in January 2021.Compass, Inc. was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in New York, New York.