Analyzing Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE:CWK) and Douglas Elliman (NYSE:DOUG)

Douglas Elliman (NYSE:DOUG) and Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE:CWK) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability and dividends.

Risk and Volatility

Douglas Elliman has a beta of 1.86, meaning that its share price is 86% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cushman & Wakefield has a beta of 1.44, meaning that its share price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Douglas Elliman and Cushman & Wakefield”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Douglas Elliman	$1.03 billion	0.16	$15.22 million	($0.07)	-25.64
Cushman & Wakefield	$10.29 billion	0.31	$88.20 million	$0.32	41.88

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

59.6% of Douglas Elliman shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.6% of Cushman & Wakefield shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.8% of Douglas Elliman shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Cushman & Wakefield shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Douglas Elliman	0.50%	-20.59%	-6.72%
Cushman & Wakefield	0.70%	15.41%	3.92%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Douglas Elliman and Cushman & Wakefield, as provided by MarketBeat.

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

Cushman & Wakefield has a consensus target price of $18.00, indicating a potential upside of 34.32%. Given Cushman & Wakefield’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Cushman & Wakefield is more favorable than Douglas Elliman.

Summary

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

About Douglas Elliman

Douglas Elliman Inc. owns Douglas Elliman Realty, LLC, operating as a residential brokerage company in the United States with operations in New York, Florida, California, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. In addition, Douglas Elliman sources, uses and invests in early-stage, disruptive property technology (“PropTech”) solutions and companies and provides other real estate services, including development marketing, property management and settlement and escrow services in select markets.

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.