JLL To Boost Leasing Business With Peloton Commercial Buyout

In an effort to substantially boost its Agency Leasing and Property Management business, Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (NYSE:JLL) — popularly known as JLL — has announced that it will buy Peloton Commercial Real Estate. The terms of the deal, however, remain undisclosed.

Slated to close within the next few weeks, the acquisition of this Texas-based leasing and property management firm, will add Dallas and Houston offices, and bring on board Peloton’s experienced professionals.

Notably, founded by Joel Pustmueller and T.D. Briggs in 2002, Peloton is currently into managing or leasing more than 25 million square feet for clients. The company has earned a reputation for providing client-focused real estate solutions.

With the acquisition, more than 130 Peloton professionals will join JLL. Particularly, Briggs and Pustmueller will team up with JLL's Jeff Eckert in steering the teams’ incorporation as well as propelling growth across the region. Dallas — Ft Worth and Houston will be under Pustmueller and Briggs’ focus, while Eckert will concentrate on Austin and San Antonio in addition to Dallas–Ft Worth. Moreover, John Myers, Peloton’s Property Management Partner will undertake regional leadership of Property Management for Dallas — Ft Worth.

Admittedly, JLL has a diversified product & services range which helps register balanced revenue growth across its operating markets. Also, spate of strategic investment activities, in a bid to capitalize on market consolidations, will likely boost its long-term profitability. In fact, market-share expansion will help JLL register stellar growth and a decent cash level, aiding consistent and timely deleveraging.

Particularly, with more than 400 Agency Leasing professionals in the United States, the company offers leasing services for a number of large companies. Its portfolio comprises more than 3,200 buildings aggregating 550 million square feet. In recent years, the company has displayed a solid performance, with completion of more than 4,300 transactions, totaling $16.3 billion dollars in lease value in 2018 itself.

Apart from strengthening its Agency Leasing and Property Management businesses, JLL announced completion of its acquisition of HFF Inc. early this July. This cash-and-stock transaction, valued at about $1.8 billion and first announced in March 2019, came as part of JLL’s effort to substantially boost its Capital Markets business. Such strategic efforts will drive long-term profitability.

JLL currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). So far this year, shares of the company have gained 8.5%, underperforming the industry’s 27.3% increase.

Other Key Picks

Investors interested in the real estate industry can consider some other similarly-ranked stocks like CBRE Group Inc. (NYSE:CBRE) , FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV) and Newmark Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NMRK) . You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

CBRE Group’s Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 earnings moved 1.9% north to $3.75 in a month’s time.

The current-year earnings estimates for FirstService Corporation climbed 6% in two months’ time to $3.18.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Newmark Group’s 2019 earnings moved up marginally to $1.64 over the past two months.

Just Released: Zacks’ 7 Best Stocks for Today

Experts extracted 7 stocks from the list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys that has beaten the market more than 2X over with a stunning average gain of +24.6% per year.

These 7 were selected because of their superior potential for immediate breakout.

See these time-sensitive tickers now >>