Real estate firm JLL (NYSE: JLL) reported revenue ahead of Wall Street’s expectations in Q4 CY2025, with sales up 11.7% year on year to $7.61 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $8.71 per share was 18.3% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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"We are pleased with our fourth-quarter and full-year performance, achieving new highs at year-end across key top- and bottom-line performance metrics as well as free cash flow. These results and the achievement of our mid-term margin target in 2025 reflected the outcome of our multi-year strategy, strong execution and favorable underlying business trends," said Christian Ulbrich, JLL CEO.

Company Overview

Founded in 1999 through the merger of Jones Lang Wootton and LaSalle Partners, JLL (NYSE: JLL) is a company specializing in real estate advisory and investment management services.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance is one signal of its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul. Over the last five years, JLL grew its sales at a weak 9.5% compounded annual growth rate. This fell short of our benchmark for the consumer discretionary sector and is a rough starting point for our analysis.

Long-term growth is the most important, but within consumer discretionary, product cycles are short and revenue can be hit-driven due to rapidly changing trends and consumer preferences. JLL’s annualized revenue growth of 12.2% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, which is encouraging.

This quarter, JLL reported year-on-year revenue growth of 11.7%, and its $7.61 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 1.3%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 6% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last two years. This projection is underwhelming and indicates its products and services will see some demand headwinds.

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Operating Margin

Operating margin is a key measure of profitability. Think of it as net income - the bottom line - excluding the impact of taxes and interest on debt, which are less connected to business fundamentals.

JLL’s operating margin might fluctuated slightly over the last 12 months but has generally stayed the same, averaging 4% over the last two years. This profitability was inadequate for a consumer discretionary business and caused by its suboptimal cost structure.

This quarter, JLL generated an operating margin profit margin of 6.7%, up 1.2 percentage points year on year. This increase was a welcome development and shows it was more efficient.

Earnings Per Share

We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.

JLL’s EPS grew at a weak 14.7% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This performance was better than its flat revenue but doesn’t tell us much about its business quality because its operating margin didn’t improve.

In Q4, JLL reported adjusted EPS of $8.71, up from $6.15 in the same quarter last year. This print easily cleared analysts’ estimates, and shareholders should be content with the results. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects JLL’s full-year EPS of $18.82 to grow 8.5%.

Key Takeaways from JLL’s Q4 Results

It was good to see JLL beat analysts’ EPS expectations this quarter. We were also happy its EBITDA outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, we think this was a decent quarter with some key metrics above expectations. The stock traded up 3.5% to $297.00 immediately after reporting.

JLL put up rock-solid earnings, but one quarter doesn’t necessarily make the stock a buy. Let’s see if this is a good investment. When making that decision, it’s important to consider its valuation, business qualities, as well as what has happened in the latest quarter. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).