Anywhere Real Estate (NYSE:HOUS) versus Safestore (OTCMKTS:SFSHF) Critical Comparison

Anywhere Real Estate (NYSE:HOUS) and Safestore (OTCMKTS:SFSHF) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Anywhere Real Estate and Safestore’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Anywhere Real Estate	-1.87%	-4.57%	-1.24%
Safestore	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider & Institutional Ownership

97.6% of Anywhere Real Estate shares are held by institutional investors. 3.9% of Anywhere Real Estate shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Anywhere Real Estate and Safestore, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Anywhere Real Estate	1	3	0	0	1.75
Safestore	0	0	0	0	0.00

Anywhere Real Estate presently has a consensus target price of $9.13, indicating a potential downside of 14.00%. Given Anywhere Real Estate’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Anywhere Real Estate is more favorable than Safestore.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Anywhere Real Estate and Safestore”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Anywhere Real Estate	$5.69 billion	0.21	-$128.00 million	($0.98)	-10.83
Safestore	$284.91 million	6.75	$474.94 million	N/A	N/A

Safestore has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Anywhere Real Estate.

Volatility and Risk

Anywhere Real Estate has a beta of 1.76, meaning that its share price is 76% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Safestore has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Anywhere Real Estate beats Safestore on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Anywhere Real Estate

Anywhere Real Estate Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides residential real estate services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Anywhere Brands, Anywhere Advisors, and Anywhere Integrated Services. The Anywhere Brands segment franchises the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Coldwell Banker Commercial, Corcoran, ERA, and Sotheby's International Realty brand names. This segment also includes global relocation services under Cartus brand name; and lead generation activities. The Anywhere Advisors segment operates a full-service residential real estate brokerage business under the Coldwell Banker, Corcoran, and Sotheby's International Realty brand names to assist home buyers and sellers in the listing, marketing, selling, and finding homes. This segment also operates real estate auction joint venture. The Anywhere Integrated Services segment provides full-service title, escrow, and settlement services to consumers, real estate companies, corporations, and financial institutions primarily in support of residential real estate transactions. This segment also originates and markets its mortgage lending services to other real estate brokerage companies. The company was formerly known as Realogy Holdings Corp. and changed its name to Anywhere Real Estate Inc. in June 2022. Anywhere Real Estate Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Madison, New Jersey.

About Safestore

Safestore is the UK’s largest self storage group with 190 stores on 31 October 2023, comprising 133 wholly owned stores in the UK (including 73 in London and the South East with the remainder in key metropolitan areas such as Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, and Bristol), 29 wholly owned stores in the Paris region, 11 stores in Spain, 11 stores in the Netherlands and 6 stores in Belgium. In addition, the Group operates 7 stores in Germany under a Joint Venture agreement with Carlyle. Safestore operates more self storage sites inside the M25 and in central Paris than any competitor providing more proximity to customers in the wealthiest and more densely populated UK and French markets. Safestore was founded in the UK in 1998. It acquired the French business “Une Pièce en Plus” (“UPP”) in 2004 which was founded in 1998 by the current Safestore Group CEO Frederic Vecchioli. Safestore has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2007. It entered the FTSE 250 index in October 2015. The Group provides storage to around 90,000 personal and business customers. As of 31 October 2023, Safestore had a maximum lettable area (“MLA”) of 8.090 million sq ft (excluding the expansion pipeline stores) of which 6.231 million sq ft was occupied. Safestore employs around 750 people in the UK, Paris, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium.