Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI – Get Rating) and HG (OTCMKTS:STLY – Get Rating) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, risk, valuation and profitability.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
90.3% of Crown Castle shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.7% of HG shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Crown Castle shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 35.4% of HG shares are held by 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.
Volatility and Risk
Crown Castle has a beta of 0.65, indicating that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HG has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Ratings
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Crown Castle | 1 | 3 | 12 | 0 | 2.69 |
| HG | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A |
Crown Castle presently has a consensus target price of $155.56, indicating a potential upside of 35.73%. Given Crown Castle’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Crown Castle is more favorable than HG.
Profitability
This table compares Crown Castle and HG’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Crown Castle | 23.81% | 22.12% | 4.29% |
| HG | 23.55% | 11.14% | 7.83% |
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Crown Castle and HG’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Crown Castle | $7.02 billion | 7.08 | $1.68 billion | $3.86 | 29.69 |
| HG | $14.48 million | 1.50 | $3.74 million | $1.22 | 6.19 |
Crown Castle has higher revenue and earnings than HG. HG is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Crown Castle, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Crown Castle beats HG on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Crown Castle
Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 85,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions across every major U.S. market. This nationwide portfolio of communications infrastructure connects cities and communities to essential data, technology and wireless service – bringing information, ideas and innovations to the people and businesses that need them.
About HG
HG Holdings, Inc. engages in the title insurance and real estate businesses in the United States. It operates through four segments: Title Insurance Services, Reinsurance, Management Services, and Real Estate. The company provides title insurance, closing and/or escrow, and similar or related services in connection with residential and commercial real estate transactions. It also owns and operates a portfolio of single-tenant properties leased for the occupancy by U.S. government tenant agencies and sub-agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Veterans affairs, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration & Customs Enforcement, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Transportation. In addition, the company provides excess-of-loss reinsurance coverage related to catastrophic weather risk in Texas; and management advisory services, such as formation, operational, and restructuring services. The company was formerly known as Stanley Furniture Company, Inc. and changed its name to HG Holdings, Inc. in March 2018. HG Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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