J. W. Mays (NASDAQ:MAYS) & CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) Head-To-Head Analysis

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) and J. W. Mays (NASDAQ:MAYS) are both real estate companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, risk and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for CoStar Group and J. W. Mays, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CoStar Group	2	9	9	0	2.35
J. W. Mays	1	0	0	0	1.00

CoStar Group presently has a consensus target price of $40.11, indicating a potential upside of 13.13%. Given CoStar Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe CoStar Group is more favorable than J. W. Mays.

Profitability

This table compares CoStar Group and J. W. Mays’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CoStar Group	2.08%	3.74%	2.96%
J. W. Mays	-5.37%	-2.21%	-1.30%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

96.6% of CoStar Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 3.2% of J. W. Mays shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of CoStar Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 40.8% of J. W. Mays shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares CoStar Group and J. W. Mays”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	4.42	$7.00 million	$0.19	186.58
J. W. Mays	$22.47 million	3.56	-$140,000.00	($0.58)	-68.27

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

Volatility & Risk

CoStar Group has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, J. W. Mays has a beta of 0.2, meaning that its stock price is 80% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

CoStar Group beats J. W. Mays on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CoStar Group

CoStar Group, Inc. provides information, analytics, and online marketplace services to the commercial real estate, hospitality, residential, and related professionals industries in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The company offers CoStar Property that provides inventory of office, industrial, retail, multifamily, hospitality, and student housing properties and land; CoStar Sales, a robust database of comparable commercial real estate sales transactions; CoStar Market Analytics to view and report on aggregated market and submarket trends; and CoStar Tenant, an online business-to-business prospecting and analytical tool that provides tenant information. It also provides Leasing, a tool to capture, manage, and maintain lease data; CoStar Lease Analysis; Public Record, a searchable database of commercially zoned parcels; CoStar Real Estate Manager, a real estate lease administration, portfolio management, and lease accounting compliance software solution; and CoStar Risk Analytics and CoStar Investment. In addition, it offers apartment marketing sites, such as ApartmentFinder.com, ForRent.com, ApartmentHomeLiving.com, WestsideRentals.com, AFTER55.com, CorporateHousing.com, ForRentUniversity.com, Apartamentos.com, and Off Campus Partners; LoopNet Premium Lister; LoopNet Diamond, Platinum, and Gold Ads; LandsofAmerica.com, LandAndFarm.com, and LandWatch.com for rural land for-sale; BizBuySell.com, BizQuest.com, and FindaFranchise.com for operating businesses and franchises for-sale; Ten-X, an online auction platform for commercial real estate; and HomeSnap, an online and mobile software platform, as well as Homes.com, a homes for sale listings site. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Washington, the District of Columbia.

About J. W. Mays

J.W. Mays, Inc. owns, operates, and leases commercial real estate properties in United States. The company's properties are located in Brooklyn, Jamaica, Fishkill, Levittown, and Massapequa of New York; and Circleville of Ohio. The company was founded in 1924 and is based in Brooklyn, New York.