Financial Analysis: St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) and Berkeley Group (OTCMKTS:BKGFY)

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

Profitability

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

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

Dividends

St. Joe pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Berkeley Group pays an annual dividend of $0.07 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. St. Joe pays out 35.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. St. Joe has raised 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.

Volatility and Risk

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

86.7% of St. Joe shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of St. Joe shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for St. Joe and Berkeley Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

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

Valuation & Earnings

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

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

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

Summary

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

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.

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.