Contrasting Hammerson (OTCMKTS:HMSNF) and Saul Centers (NYSE:BFS)

Saul Centers (NYSE:BFS) and Hammerson (OTCMKTS:HMSNF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Saul Centers has a beta of 1.11, indicating that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hammerson has a beta of 1.7, indicating that its stock price is 70% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Saul Centers and Hammerson’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Saul Centers	20.84%	17.16%	2.72%
Hammerson	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Saul Centers and Hammerson, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Saul Centers	0	0	1	0	3.00
Hammerson	0	0	0	2	4.00

Saul Centers presently has a consensus target price of $45.50, suggesting a potential upside of 25.92%. Given Saul Centers’ higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Saul Centers is more favorable than Hammerson.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Saul Centers and Hammerson”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Saul Centers	$257.21 million	3.40	$52.69 million	$1.84	19.64
Hammerson	$167.01 million	N/A	-$63.94 million	N/A	N/A

Saul Centers has higher revenue and earnings than Hammerson.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

50.0% of Saul Centers shares are held by institutional investors. 56.6% of Saul Centers shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Saul Centers beats Hammerson on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Saul Centers

Saul Centers is a self-managed, self-administered equity REIT headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. Saul Centers currently operates and manages a real estate portfolio comprised of 61 properties that includes (a) 57 community and neighborhood Shopping Centers and Mixed-Use properties with approximately 9.8 million square feet of leasable area and (b) four land and development properties. Over 85% of the Company’s property operating income is generated from properties in the metropolitan Washington, DC/Baltimore area.

About Hammerson

Hammerson is a cities business. An owner, operator and developer of prime urban real estate, with a portfolio value of £4.7billion (as at 30 June 2023), in some of the fastest growing cities in the UK, Ireland and France. Our portfolio and adjacent lands leverage our experience and capabilities to create and manage exceptional city centre destinations with the opportunity to drive value and reshape entire neighbourhoods. Our assets are high profile and play an important role in our communities, welcoming c. 175 million visitors each year and supporting 20,000+ jobs though our retail, dining and social occupiers. These destinations include Bullring in Birmingham, The Oracle in Reading, Dundrum Estate, Dublin and Terraces du Port in Marseille. We also hold investments in Value Retail, best-in-class villages such as Bicester Village, Oxfordshire. Hammerson also holds 80 acres of attractive pre-development and strategic land. This includes complementary adjacent land, creating optionality to enhance both the scale and diversity of the existing estate, and stand-alone land opportunities. These include Martineau Galleries in Birmingham and Bishopsgate Goodsyard, Shoreditch.