Critical Contrast: Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) & Howard Hughes (NYSE:HHH)

Howard Hughes (NYSE:HHH) and Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, risk, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Howard Hughes and Public Storage, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Howard Hughes	0	0	2	0	3.00
Public Storage	1	6	6	2	2.60

Howard Hughes presently has a consensus target price of $82.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3.55%. Public Storage has a consensus target price of $339.64, suggesting a potential upside of 0.70%. Given Howard Hughes’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Howard Hughes is more favorable than Public Storage.

Risk and Volatility

Howard Hughes has a beta of 1.46, meaning that its stock price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Public Storage has a beta of 0.7, meaning that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Howard Hughes and Public Storage’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Howard Hughes	6.57%	3.38%	1.03%
Public Storage	40.54%	34.07%	9.60%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

93.8% of Howard Hughes shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.8% of Public Storage shares are held by institutional investors. 33.0% of Howard Hughes shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.0% of Public Storage 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Howard Hughes and Public Storage”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Howard Hughes	$1.02 billion	3.88	-$550.95 million	$1.51	52.44
Public Storage	$4.52 billion	13.07	$2.15 billion	$9.63	35.02

Public Storage has higher revenue and earnings than Howard Hughes. Public Storage is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Howard Hughes, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Public Storage beats Howard Hughes on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes Holdings Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate development company in the United States. It operates in four segments: Operating Assets; Master Planned Communities (MPCs); Seaport; and Strategic Developments. The Operating Assets segment consists of developed or acquired retail, office, and multi-family properties along with other retail investments. Its MPCs segment develops, sells, and leases residential and commercial land designated for long-term community development projects in and around Las Vegas, Nevada; Houston, Texas; and Phoenix, Arizona. The Seaport segment is involved in the landlord operations, managed businesses, and events and sponsorships services of its restaurant, retail, and entertain properties in Pier 17, New York City; Historic Area/Uplands; and Tin Building, as well as in 250 Water Street and in the Jean-Georges restaurants. The Strategic Development segment develops and redevelops residential condominiums and commercial properties. It serves homebuilders. Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.

About Public Storage

Public Storage, a member of the S&P 500 and FT Global 500, is a REIT that primarily acquires, develops, owns, and operates self-storage facilities. At December 31, 2023, we had: (i) interests in 3,044 self-storage facilities located in 40 states with approximately 218 million net rentable square feet in the United States and (ii) a 35% common equity interest in Shurgard Self Storage Limited (Euronext Brussels: SHUR), which owned 275 self-storage facilities located in seven Western European nations with approximately 15 million net rentable square feet operated under the Shurgard brand. Our headquarters are located in Glendale, California.