Financial Comparison: Compass (NYSE:COMP) and Forestar Group (NYSE:FOR)

Forestar Group (NYSE:FOR) and Compass (NYSE:COMP) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Forestar Group and Compass”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Forestar Group	$1.72 billion	0.79	$167.90 million	$3.33	8.07
Compass	$10.56 billion	0.77	-$58.50 million	$0.06	178.25

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

Volatility & Risk

Forestar Group has a beta of 1.41, meaning that its stock price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Compass has a beta of 2.32, meaning that its stock price is 132% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

35.5% of Forestar Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.1% of Compass shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Forestar Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Compass shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Forestar Group and Compass’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Forestar Group	9.88%	9.42%	5.36%
Compass	0.63%	3.62%	1.37%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Forestar Group and Compass, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Forestar Group	0	4	2	0	2.33
Compass	0	6	8	1	2.67

Forestar Group presently has a consensus price target of $32.67, suggesting a potential upside of 21.57%. Compass has a consensus price target of $14.15, suggesting a potential upside of 32.34%. Given Compass’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Compass is more favorable than Forestar Group.

Summary

Compass beats Forestar Group on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Forestar Group

Forestar Group Inc. operates as a residential lot development company in the United States. The company acquires land and develops infrastructure for single-family residential communities. It sells its residential single-family finished lots to local, regional, and national homebuilders. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Arlington, Texas. Forestar Group Inc. operates as a subsidiary of D.R. Horton, Inc.

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.