Contrasting Real Brokerage (NASDAQ:REAX) & GDS (NASDAQ:GDS)

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) and Real Brokerage (NASDAQ:REAX) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

33.7% of GDS shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.3% of Real Brokerage shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.0% of GDS shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 38.2% of Real Brokerage shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

GDS has a beta of 0.46, suggesting that its share price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Real Brokerage has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares GDS and Real Brokerage’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GDS	23.83%	15.62%	5.16%
Real Brokerage	-0.32%	-11.37%	-4.32%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for GDS and Real Brokerage, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GDS	0	3	7	1	2.82
Real Brokerage	1	1	4	2	2.88

GDS currently has a consensus price target of $48.04, suggesting a potential upside of 37.17%. Real Brokerage has a consensus price target of $5.69, suggesting a potential upside of 219.52%. Given Real Brokerage’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Real Brokerage is more favorable than GDS.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares GDS and Real Brokerage”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
GDS	$1.63 billion	4.16	$132.10 million	$1.57	22.31
Real Brokerage	$1.97 billion	0.19	-$8.10 million	($0.03)	-59.33

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

Summary

GDS beats Real Brokerage on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About GDS

GDS Holdings Limited, together with its subsidiaries, develops and operates data centers in the People's Republic of China. The company provides colocation services comprising critical facilities space, customer-available power, racks, and cooling; managed hosting services, including business continuity and disaster recovery, network management, data storage, system security, operating system, database, and server middleware services; managed cloud services; and consulting services. It serves cloud service providers, large Internet companies, financial institutions, telecommunications and IT service providers, and large domestic private sector and multinational corporations. GDS Holdings Limited was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China.

About Real Brokerage

The Real Brokerage Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate technology company in the United States and Canada. It operates in three segments: North American Brokerage, Real Title, and One Real Mortgage. It offers brokerage, title, and mortgage broker services. The company is based in Miami, Florida.