Here's Why You Should Retain Jones Lang Stock in Your Portfolio Now

Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated JLL, popularly known as JLL, is expected to gain from the continued strength of its resilient lines of business and favorable outsourcing trends. However, macroeconomic uncertainty, occupiers’ cautious approach and competition remain a concern.What’s Aiding JLL?JLL has a broad range of real estate products and services as well as extensive knowledge of domestic and international real estate markets, thus enabling it to operate as a single-source provider of real estate solutions. Its superior client services and strategic investment in technology and innovation are expected to help grow market share and win relationships. Strategic technology investments enable the company to navigate challenging times.Moreover, JLL's diversified and resilient platform and cost-optimization efforts are expected to support its adjusted EBITDA. Given its strong performance in 2024, management projects 2024 adjusted EBITDA to be within the range of $1.30-$1.45 billion compared with the prior guided range of $1.25-$1.45 billion. We expect fee revenues to increase 5% year over year each in 2025 and 2026. Adjusted EBITDA is projected to increase 13% in 2025, 14.8% in 2026 and 13.3% in 2027.JLL’s Real Estate Management Services segment is well-positioned to benefit from favorable trends in the outsourcing business. Corporations are looking for the company’s wide-ranging knowledge and the breadth of its services, including sustainability. In the post-pandemic period, the trend for organizations to outsource real estate services and seek strategic advice on reimagining their workspaces and workstyles to boost culture, attract talent and drive performance has gathered more strength.Amid the rising trend of outsourcing real estate needs by companies, new contract wins and the expansion of services with existing clients are likely to aid JLL’s performance in the upcoming period. The company remains confident in the long-term trajectory of the Workplace Management business as its sales pipeline is strong and contract renewal rates are stable. We expect a year-over-year increase of 11.1% in JLL’s Real Estate Management Services segment’s total revenues in 2025.JLL is focused on maintaining balance sheet strength and adequate liquidity to enjoy operational flexibility. The company exited the second quarter of 2025 with $3.32 billion of corporate liquidity and a net leverage of 1.2X compared to 1.4X reported in the prior quarter. As of June 30, 2025, it had investment-grade ratings of Baa1 from Moody’s and BBB+ from S&P Global, which highlight financial and balance-sheet strength, enabling it to borrow at a favorable rate. Hence, with a solid balance sheet, the company is well-poised to sail through challenging times and capitalize on solid opportunities.Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have increased 22.3% over the past three months, compared with the industry’s 14.2% growth. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research What’s Hurting JLL?Macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical unrest have resulted in an uneven recovery in the global economy. Also, capital markets have slowed down due to restrictive underwriting assumptions and rising debt costs.Occupiers continue to adopt a cautious approach under present market circumstances, awaiting greater price discovery, which is causing a delay in the closing timeline for transactions, particularly for large-scale transactions. As a result, an industry-wide slowdown in investment sales and leasing activity across certain asset types will likely lead to an underperformance in the company’s transaction-based businesses in the upcoming period, specifically Capital Markets and Leasing Advisory.Competition from other real estate service providers and institutional players on the international, regional and local markets is a concern for JLL. Also, some of them are larger on a regional or local basis or have a stronger position in a specific market segment or service offering. This could curb JLL’s ability to raise fees, affecting profitability.Stocks to ConsiderSome better-ranked stocks from the real estate operations industry are Newmark Group NMRK and Cushman & Wakefield CWK.Newmark sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NMRK’s 2025 earnings per share is pinned at $1.55, suggesting year-over-year growth of 26%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CWK’s ongoing year’s earnings per share stands at $1.17, indicating a 28.6% increase from the year-ago reported figure. CWK currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).Free Report: Profiting from the 2nd Wave of AI ExplosionThe next phase of the AI explosion is poised to create significant wealth for investors, especially those who get in early. It will add literally trillion of dollars to the economy and revolutionize nearly every part of our lives.Investors who bought shares like Nvidia at the right time have had a shot at huge gains.But the rocket ride in the "first wave" of AI stocks may soon come to an end. The sharp upward trajectory of these stocks will begin to level off, leaving exponential growth to a new wave of cutting-edge companies.Zacks' AI Boom 2.0: The Second Wave report reveals 4 under-the-radar companies that may soon be shining stars of AI’s next leap forward.Access AI Boom 2.0 now, absolutely free >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL): Free Stock Analysis Report Newmark Group, Inc. (NMRK): Free Stock Analysis Report Cushman & Wakefield PLC (CWK): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks