Comparing Hulic (OTCMKTS:HULCF) & CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP)

Hulic (OTCMKTS:HULCF) and CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) are both real estate companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Hulic and CoStar Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hulic	0	0	0	0	N/A
CoStar Group	0	2	11	0	2.85

CoStar Group has a consensus target price of $100.55, suggesting a potential upside of 10.92%. Given CoStar Group’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe CoStar Group is more favorable than Hulic.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

96.6% of CoStar Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of CoStar Group shares are owned 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.

Profitability

This table compares Hulic and CoStar Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hulic	N/A	N/A	N/A
CoStar Group	15.26%	6.08%	4.99%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Hulic and CoStar Group’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hulic	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
CoStar Group	$2.46 billion	15.08	$374.70 million	$0.92	98.53

CoStar Group has higher revenue and earnings than Hulic.

Summary

CoStar Group beats Hulic on 8 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hulic

Hulic Co., Ltd. engages in the holding, leasing, brokerage, and sale of real estate properties in Japan. The company operates through Real Estate Business, Insurance Business, and Hotel/Ryokan Business. Its property portfolio includes office buildings, commercial buildings, residential rental buildings, hotels, bank branch buildings, and senior housing facilities. It also engages in the asset management and insurance agency businesses; and management of hotels and inns. The company was formerly known as Nihonbashi Kogyo Co., Ltd and changed its name to Hulic Co., Ltd. in 2007. Hulic Co., Ltd. was founded in 1957 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

About CoStar Group

CoStar Group, Inc. provides information, analytics, and online marketplace services to the commercial real estate, hospitality, residential, and related professionals industries in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The company offers CoStar Property that provides inventory of office, industrial, retail, multifamily, hospitality, and student housing properties and land; CoStar Sales, a robust database of comparable commercial real estate sales transactions; CoStar Market Analytics to view and report on aggregated market and submarket trends; and CoStar Tenant, an online business-to-business prospecting and analytical tool that provides tenant information. It also provides Leasing, a tool to capture, manage, and maintain lease data; CoStar Lease Analysis; Public Record, a searchable database of commercially zoned parcels; CoStar Real Estate Manager, a real estate lease administration, portfolio management, and lease accounting compliance software solution; and CoStar Risk Analytics and CoStar Investment. In addition, it offers apartment marketing sites, such as ApartmentFinder.com, ForRent.com, ApartmentHomeLiving.com, WestsideRentals.com, AFTER55.com, CorporateHousing.com, ForRentUniversity.com, Apartamentos.com, and Off Campus Partners; LoopNet Premium Lister; LoopNet Diamond, Platinum, and Gold Ads; LandsofAmerica.com, LandAndFarm.com, and LandWatch.com for rural land for-sale; BizBuySell.com, BizQuest.com, and FindaFranchise.com for operating businesses and franchises for-sale; Ten-X, an online auction platform for commercial real estate; and HomeSnap, an online and mobile software platform, as well as Homes.com, a homes for sale listings site. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Washington, the District of Columbia.