Analyzing Compass (NYSE:COMP) & Maui Land & Pineapple (NYSE:MLP)

Maui Land & Pineapple (NYSE:MLP) and Compass (NYSE:COMP) are both real estate companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Maui Land & Pineapple and Compass”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Maui Land & Pineapple	$19.46 million	14.63	-$10.58 million	($0.23)	-62.32
Compass	$6.96 billion	1.06	-$58.50 million	$0.06	162.58

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

24.5% of Maui Land & Pineapple shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.0% of Compass shares are held by institutional investors. 68.6% of Maui Land & Pineapple shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Compass shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Maui Land & Pineapple has a beta of 0.64, meaning that its share price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Compass has a beta of 2.32, meaning that its share price is 132% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Maui Land & Pineapple and Compass’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Maui Land & Pineapple	-28.65%	-14.25%	-9.67%
Compass	0.63%	3.62%	1.37%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Maui Land & Pineapple and Compass, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Maui Land & Pineapple	1	0	0	0	1.00
Compass	0	5	11	1	2.76

Compass has a consensus target price of $13.50, suggesting a potential upside of 38.39%. Given Compass’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Compass is more favorable than Maui Land & Pineapple.

Summary

Compass beats Maui Land & Pineapple on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Maui Land & Pineapple

Maui Land & Pineapple Co., Inc. is a landholding and operating company, which engages in the development, sale, and management of real estate. It operates through the following segments: Real Estate, Leasing, and Resort Amenities. The Real Estate segment includes land planning and entitlement, development, and sales activities. The Leasing segment consists of residential, resort, commercial, agricultural and industrial land and property leases, licensing of registered trademarks and trade names, and stewardship and conservation efforts. The Resort Amenities segment manages a full-service spa, a beach club, and a private club membership program. The company was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Maui, HI.

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.