CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. (CBG), the world’s largest commercial real estate services company (on the basis of 2010 revenues), has been recently ranked as the numero uno commercial real estate brokerage firm in the U.S. by ‘National Real Estate Investor’ – a leading magazine for professional real estate investors. The ranking is based on the aggregate value of sales and leasing transactions completed globally during 2010, and marks the eighth consecutive year when CB Richard Ellis is adjudged the best in this category.
CB Richard Ellis reported fourth-quarter 2010 revenues of $1.7 billion compared with $1.3 billion in the year-earlier quarter, reflecting an increase of 27% – the highest year-over-year quarterly revenue growth since fourth quarter 2007. For full year 2010, the company reported revenues of $5.1 billion compared with $4.2 billion in 2009, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 23%.
CB Richard Ellis witnessed robust global property sales and leasing activities during fourth quarter 2010 buoyed by its leading market position in the world’s major business centers. Global property sales revenue surged 40% year-over-year during fourth quarter 2010, as credit availability became easier and broad investor sentiment improved. CB Richard Ellis signed 34 long-term real estate outsourcing contracts (including 18 new clients) during the quarter. Global leasing revenue increased 35% during the quarter as market fundamentals continued to stabilize and demand for space rebounded.
For full year 2010, CB Richard Ellis reported $128.1 billion worth of global sales and leasing transactions in 2010, which was nearly double the transaction value achieved by its nearest rival. The company extended the lead over the second-place firm by $17.5 billion in terms of global sales and leasing transactions executed in 2010 compared with 2009.
CB Richard Ellis has a broad range of real estate products and services, and an extensive knowledge of domestic and international real estate markets that enables it to operate as a single-source provider of real estate solutions. The company offers a range of services to occupiers, owners, lenders and investors in office, retail, industrial, multi-family and other types of commercial real estate assets globally under the CB Richard Ellis brand, and provides development services under the Trammell Crow brand.
We maintain our ‘Outperform’ rating on CB Richard Ellis, which presently has a Zacks #2 Rank translating into a short-term ‘Buy’ recommendation and indicates that the stock is expected to perform well above the overall U.S. equity market for the next 1−3 months.
We also have an ‘Outperform’ rating and a Zacks #1 Rank (short-term ‘Strong Buy’) for NorthStar Realty Finance Corp. (NRF), one of the peers of CB Richard Ellis.
CB RICHARD ELLS (CBG): Free Stock Analysis Report
NORTHSTAR RLTY (NRF): Free Stock Analysis Report
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