We recently compiled a list of the 10 Best Performing Real Estate Stocks to Buy According to Analysts. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (NYSE:JLL) stands against the other real estate stocks.
US Real Estate at a Glance
While uncertainty looms over the United States under the new admin in terms of tariffs, the real estate sector and especially new construction is expected to face some consequences. According to the chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders, the new tariffs could raise builder costs from $7,500 to $10,000 per home. With a third of the lumber utilized in US homebuilding coming from Canada, homebuilders will be impacted significantly by lumber cost increases. Paul Jannke, principal at Forest Economic Advisors, reiterated the adverse effects of these tariffs, stating:
“With the re-imposition of the 25% tariff on Canadian goods shipped to the U.S., we expect Canadian producers will stop shipping lumber to the U.S. Meanwhile, dealers, who have been hesitant to buy given uncertainty around the tariffs, will need to step up purchases ahead of the coming building season. This will drive prices higher.”
Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, also discussed the potential impact of these tariffs on real estate as he said:
“Rising costs due to tariffs on imports will leave builders with few options. They can choose to pass higher costs along to consumers, which will mean higher home prices, or try to use less of these materials, which will mean smaller homes”
Amidst tariffs, the housing market is already ‘in a deep freeze’ as mentioned by Mark Zandi, Moody’s Analytics chief economist, in his interview with CNBC. Although inventories are up, they continue to be extremely low by historical standards. According to Zandi, the market is not going to come back to life to any significant degree unless the mortgage rates come closer to 6% or even into the 5% range.
Our Methodology
In order to compile a list of the 10 best performing real estate stocks to buy according to analysts, we first used a stock screener to make an extended list of the relevant companies that have gained over the past year, as of March 4. After shortlisting the stocks with the most significant gains over the past year, we shortlisted the top 10 stocks with the highest upside potential, as of March 4. The 10 best performing real estate stocks to buy according to analysts have been arranged in ascending order of their average upside potential. Additionally, we have mentioned the hedge fund sentiment around each stock, as of Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A real estate broker discussing options with a customer using digital maps and virtual reality.
Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (NYSE:JLL)
Average Upside Potential: 23.45%
Gain Over Past 1 Year: 41.09%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 48
Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (NYSE:JLL) is a global commercial real estate and investment management company. The firm helps buy, manage, build, occupy, and invest in various types of commercial, industrial, hotel, residential and retail properties. JLL serves clients through five business segments including Markets Advisory, Capital Markets, Work Dynamics, LaSalle, and JLL Technologies.
JLL has invested more than 200 years in building a premier global brand and platform. JLL’s key differentiators setting it apart from the competition include its integrated global platform combined with local industry and sector expertise. JLL continues investing in its business to differentiate in the market and achieve superior outcomes for clients. During its recent quarter, the firm announced the launch of JLL Falcon, its artificial intelligence platform which combines its comprehensive proprietary data with generative AI models to accelerate the digital transformation of the commercial real estate industry.
Other than having a global scale and diversification across asset classes, the Fortune 500 company has strong business segments. For the fourth quarter of 2024, revenue growth rates for Markets Advisory, Capital Markets, Work Dynamics, and LaSalle stood at 11%, 32%, 15%, and 42% respectively. Only the revenue for JLL Technologies declined 9% year-over-year, based on lower contract signings in technology solutions over the past year which was partially offset by a modest growth in software services.
Overall JLL ranks 4th on our list of the best performing real estate stocks to buy according to analysts. While we acknowledge the potential of JLL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued AI stock that is more promising than JLL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
