Financial Review: EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) & CoreCivic (NYSE:CXW)

CoreCivic (NYSE:CXW) and EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) are both mid-cap finance 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.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

85.1% of CoreCivic shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.1% of EastGroup Properties shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of CoreCivic shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of EastGroup Properties 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.

Volatility & Risk

CoreCivic has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, EastGroup Properties has a beta of 1, indicating that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for CoreCivic and EastGroup Properties, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CoreCivic	0	2	1	0	2.33
EastGroup Properties	0	6	8	0	2.57

CoreCivic presently has a consensus target price of $23.00, suggesting a potential upside of 7.15%. EastGroup Properties has a consensus target price of $191.21, suggesting a potential upside of 11.81%. Given EastGroup Properties’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe EastGroup Properties is more favorable than CoreCivic.

Profitability

This table compares CoreCivic and EastGroup Properties’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CoreCivic	3.85%	6.55%	3.20%
EastGroup Properties	37.19%	8.56%	5.01%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CoreCivic and EastGroup Properties”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CoreCivic	$1.90 billion	1.25	$67.59 million	$0.67	32.04
EastGroup Properties	$625.34 million	13.54	$200.49 million	$4.84	35.33

EastGroup Properties has lower revenue, but higher earnings than CoreCivic. CoreCivic is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than EastGroup Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

EastGroup Properties beats CoreCivic on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CoreCivic

CoreCivic, Inc. owns and operates partnership correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities in the United States. It operates through three segments: CoreCivic Safety, CoreCivic Community, and CoreCivic Properties. The company provides a range of solutions to government partners that serve the public good through corrections and detention management, a network of residential reentry centers to help address America’s recidivism crisis, and government real estate solutions. Its correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities offer rehabilitation and educational programs, including basic education, faith-based services, life skills and employment training, and substance abuse treatment. The company owns and operates correctional and detention facilities, residential reentry centers, and properties for lease. CoreCivic, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in Brentwood, Tennessee.

About EastGroup Properties

EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE: EGP), a member of the S&P Mid-Cap 400 and Russell 1000 Indexes, is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust focused on the development, acquisition and operation of industrial properties in major Sunbelt markets throughout the United States with an emphasis in the states of Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and North Carolina. The Company's goal is to maximize shareholder value by being a leading provider in its markets of functional, flexible and quality business distribution space for location sensitive customers (primarily in the 20,000 to 100,000 square foot range). The Company's strategy for growth is based on ownership of premier distribution facilities generally clustered near major transportation features in supply-constrained submarkets. The Company's portfolio, including development projects and value-add acquisitions in lease-up and under construction, currently includes approximately 59 million square feet.