Critical Comparison: Intergroup (NASDAQ:INTG) versus St. Joe (NYSE:JOE)

St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) and Intergroup (NASDAQ:INTG) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, profitability, institutional ownership and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.7% of St. Joe shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 3.4% of Intergroup shares are owned by institutional investors. 38.8% of St. Joe shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 74.1% of Intergroup shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares St. Joe and Intergroup’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%
Intergroup	-8.39%	N/A	-5.22%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares St. Joe and Intergroup”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
St. Joe	$402.70 million	8.86	$74.19 million	$1.80	34.32
Intergroup	$64.38 million	0.88	-$5.35 million	($2.54)	-10.41

St. Joe has higher revenue and earnings than Intergroup. Intergroup is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than St. Joe, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

St. Joe has a beta of 1.32, suggesting that its stock price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Intergroup has a beta of 0.21, suggesting that its stock price is 79% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for St. Joe and Intergroup, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
St. Joe	0	0	1	0	3.00
Intergroup	1	0	0	0	1.00

Summary

St. Joe beats Intergroup on 12 of the 13 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 Intergroup

The InterGroup Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates a hotel under the Hilton San Francisco Financial District name located in San Francisco, California. The company operates through three segments: Hotel Operations, Real Estate Operations, and Investment Transactions. Its hotel consists of guest rooms and luxury suites, a restaurant, a lounge, a private dining room, meeting room space, a gym, a grand ballroom, 5-level underground parking garage, a pedestrian bridge, and a Chinese culture center. The company also invests in income-producing instruments, corporate debt and equity securities, publicly traded investment funds, mortgage-backed securities, securities issued by REITs, and other companies that invest primarily in real estate. In addition, it owns, manages, and invests in apartment complexes, single-family houses as strategic investments, and commercial real estate property located in the United States, as well as owns unimproved land in Maui, Hawaii. The InterGroup Corporation was founded in 1965 and is based in Los Angeles, California.