Douglas Elliman (NYSE:DOUG) & CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) Financial Analysis

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) and Douglas Elliman (NYSE:DOUG) are both real estate companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for CoStar Group and Douglas Elliman, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CoStar Group	2	8	10	0	2.40
Douglas Elliman	1	2	0	0	1.67

CoStar Group currently has a consensus price target of $39.11, suggesting a potential upside of 29.92%. Given CoStar Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe CoStar Group is more favorable than Douglas Elliman.

Risk and Volatility

CoStar Group has a beta of 0.79, indicating that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Douglas Elliman has a beta of 1.87, indicating that its share price is 87% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares CoStar Group and Douglas Elliman’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CoStar Group	4.87%	4.87%	3.82%
Douglas Elliman	5.73%	-22.15%	-8.67%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares CoStar Group and Douglas Elliman”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CoStar Group	$3.25 billion	3.73	$7.00 million	$0.44	68.41
Douglas Elliman	$1.03 billion	0.15	$15.22 million	$0.54	3.14

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

96.6% of CoStar Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 59.6% of Douglas Elliman shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of CoStar Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.6% of Douglas Elliman shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

CoStar Group beats Douglas Elliman on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CoStar Group

CoStar Group, Inc. is a provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces. Its services help real estate professionals, investors, lenders and businesses research properties, evaluate markets and connect with buyers, sellers and tenants. The company’s brands include CoStar, which provides commercial property data and research; LoopNet, a commercial property marketplace; Apartments.com, a rental listings platform; and STR, which supplies benchmarking data for the hospitality industry.

About Douglas Elliman

Douglas Elliman Inc. is a residential real estate services company whose principal business is operating Douglas Elliman Realty, a brokerage serving buyers, sellers, renters and property owners. Its agents handle residential sales and rentals, including luxury properties, and the company also markets new residential developments. The brokerage traces its roots to 1911 and serves markets across the United States, including New York, Florida, California and other regions. It also connects clients with international markets through referral relationships.