St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) and Berkeley Group (OTCMKTS:BKGFY) Critical Review

Berkeley Group (OTCMKTS:BKGFY) and St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Berkeley Group and St. Joe”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Berkeley Group	$3.18 billion	1.77	$489.30 million	N/A	N/A
St. Joe	$402.70 million	9.86	$74.19 million	$1.80	38.19

Berkeley Group has higher revenue and earnings than St. Joe.

Dividends

Berkeley Group pays an annual dividend of $0.07 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. St. Joe pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. St. Joe pays out 35.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. St. Joe has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. St. Joe is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.7% of St. Joe shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of St. Joe shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Berkeley Group and St. Joe’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Berkeley Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
St. Joe	21.40%	13.96%	6.78%

Risk and Volatility

Berkeley Group has a beta of 1.15, suggesting that its stock price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, St. Joe has a beta of 1.34, suggesting that its stock price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Berkeley Group and St. Joe, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Berkeley Group	2	2	1	2	2.43
St. Joe	0	0	1	0	3.00

Summary

St. Joe beats Berkeley Group on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Berkeley Group

The Berkeley Group Holdings plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the residential-led and mixed-use property development and ancillary activities in the United Kingdom. The company is involved in land selling activities. It operates under the Berkeley, St Edward, St George, St James, St Joseph, and St William brand names. The Berkeley Group Holdings plc was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Cobham, the United Kingdom.

About St. Joe

The St. Joe Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate development, asset management, and operating company in Northwest Florida. It operates through three segments: Residential, Hospitality, and Commercial. The Residential segment engages in the development of communities into homesites for sale to homebuilders and on a limited basis to retail customers. This segment primarily sells developed homesites, completed homes, parcels of entitled or undeveloped land or homesites, and a homesite residual on homebuilder, as well as offers title insurance and marketing services. The Hospitality segment owns and operates a private membership club, golf courses, beach clubs, retail outlets, marinas, and other entertainment assets. This segment also engages in the hotel, food and beverage, and gulf-front vacation rental operations, as well as provides management services. The Commercial segment engages in leasing of commercial property, multi-family, a senior living community, and other assets. This segment is also involved in the planning, development, entitlement, management, and sale of commercial and rural land holdings for retail, office, hotel, senior living, multi-family, self-storage, and industrial uses; and grows and sells pulpwood, sawtimber, and other forest products. The company was incorporated in 1936 and is based in Panama City Beach, Florida.