Boston Omaha (NYSE:BOC) & J. W. Mays (NASDAQ:MAYS) Critical Contrast

Boston Omaha (NYSE:BOC) and J. W. Mays (NASDAQ:MAYS) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Boston Omaha and J. W. Mays, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Boston Omaha	0	1	1	0	2.50
J. W. Mays	0	0	0	0	0.00

Boston Omaha presently has a consensus price target of $20.00, indicating a potential upside of 48.58%. Given Boston Omaha’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Boston Omaha is more favorable than J. W. Mays.

Risk and Volatility

Boston Omaha has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, J. W. Mays has a beta of -0.1, suggesting that its stock price is 110% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Boston Omaha and J. W. Mays’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Boston Omaha	0.77%	0.15%	0.12%
J. W. Mays	-0.34%	-0.14%	-0.08%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Boston Omaha and J. W. Mays”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Boston Omaha	$108.28 million	3.91	-$1.29 million	$0.03	448.70
J. W. Mays	$21.59 million	4.02	-$410,000.00	($0.04)	-1,074.88

J. W. Mays has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Boston Omaha. J. W. Mays is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Boston Omaha, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

60.4% of Boston Omaha shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 3.2% of J. W. Mays shares are held by institutional investors. 23.2% of Boston Omaha shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 35.2% of J. W. Mays shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Boston Omaha beats J. W. Mays on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Boston Omaha

Boston Omaha Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the outdoor billboard advertising business in the southeast United States. It is also involved in the surety insurance and related brokerage, broadband, and asset management businesses. The company was formerly known as REO Plus, Inc. and changed its name to Boston Omaha Corporation in March 2015. Boston Omaha Corporation was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.

About J. W. Mays

J.W. Mays, Inc. owns, operates, and leases commercial real estate properties in United States. The company's properties are located in Brooklyn, Jamaica, Fishkill, Levittown, and Massapequa of New York; and Circleville of Ohio. The company was founded in 1924 and is based in Brooklyn, New York.