PS Business Parks (NYSE:PSB) and Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
69.9% of PS Business Parks shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.5% of Cousins Properties shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of PS Business Parks shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Cousins Properties shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for PS Business Parks and Cousins Properties, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
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PS Business Parks | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.67 |
Cousins Properties | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2.67 |
PS Business Parks currently has a consensus target price of $133.6667, suggesting a potential downside of 16.65%. Cousins Properties has a consensus target price of $38.00, suggesting a potential upside of 5.50%. Given Cousins Properties' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Cousins Properties is more favorable than PS Business Parks.
Profitability
This table compares PS Business Parks and Cousins Properties' net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
---|
PS Business Parks | 45.25% | 18.36% | 9.17% |
Cousins Properties | 45.67% | 7.61% | 4.93% |
Dividends
PS Business Parks pays an annual dividend of $4.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Cousins Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. PS Business Parks pays out 61.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Cousins Properties pays out 42.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. PS Business Parks has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Cousins Properties has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Cousins Properties is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares PS Business Parks and Cousins Properties' top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
---|
PS Business Parks | $429.85 million | 10.26 | $174.97 million | $6.78 | 23.65 |
Cousins Properties | $657.52 million | 8.29 | $150.42 million | $2.94 | 12.25 |
PS Business Parks has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Cousins Properties. Cousins Properties is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than PS Business Parks, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Risk and Volatility
PS Business Parks has a beta of 0.47, indicating that its stock price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cousins Properties has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Cousins Properties beats PS Business Parks on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.