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what it is
CBRE helps companies lease, manage, finance, and sell buildings across offices, warehouses, stores, and apartments.
how it gets paid
Last year Cbre made $39.9B in revenue. United States was the main engine at $22.34B, or 56% of sales.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 13.4% last year. Revenue rose 182% vs. prior year in the latest quarter.
what just happened
CBRE posted revenue of $28.5B, but the supplied consensus shows EPS of $1.39 versus a $2.64 estimate.
At a glance
B++ balance sheet — above average — nothing keeping you up at night
60/100 earnings predictability — reasonably predictable
26.9x trailing p/e — priced about right
13.0% return on capital — nothing to write home about
xvary composite: 61/100 — average
What they do
CBRE helps companies lease, manage, finance, and sell buildings across offices, warehouses, stores, and apartments.
CBRE wins on reach. It has about 140,000 employees and generated $39.9B in 2024 revenue, with 56% from the U.S. and 44% from everywhere else. When your client wants one broker, one manager, and one adviser across countries, scale becomes switching costs (hard to replace at once → clients stick around → revenue holds up better).
How they make money
$39.9B
annual revenue · their business grew +13.4% last year
United States
$22.34B
United Kingdom
$5.59B
EMEA ex-UK
$4.39B
Asia-Pacific
$3.19B
Americas ex-US
$4.39B
The products that matter
transactional real estate services
Advisory and leasing
$39.9B companywide revenue
This is still the swing factor for sentiment. Leasing activity helped push total revenue up 13.4% last year, and it is usually the first line item to feel better when property markets wake up.
cyclical driver
facilities and building operations
Building operations and experience
60% of revenue
Management says steadier operations now make up 60% of revenue, up from 30% fifteen years ago. That's the part that keeps the lights on when transactions slow.
recurring base
critical infrastructure services
Data center services
~10% of earnings
This piece accounts for about 10% of earnings today. That's still small in company terms, but it gives CBRE one growth lane that does not depend on office towers saving the story.
growth pocket
Key numbers
8.0%
debt load
Long-term debt is just 8% of capital, which means leverage is not the main thing standing between you and the thesis.
13.0%
return on capital
Return on capital → profit earned on money used in the business → 13.0% says CBRE is decent, not magical, at turning scale into profit.
26.9x
trailing p/e
Trailing P/E → stock price divided by past earnings → you are paying up today for a cleaner property market tomorrow.
$4.3B
long-term debt
Against a roughly $50B market value, $4.3B of long-term debt is manageable, which keeps the balance sheet from becoming the story.
Financial health
B++
strength
- balance sheet grade B++ — above average financial health
- risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
- price stability 65 / 100
- long-term debt $4.3B (8% of capital)
- net profit margin 5.0% — keeps 5 cents of every dollar in revenue
- return on equity 16% — $0.16 profit for every $1 investors have put in
B++ — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
You invested $10,000 in CBRE 3 years ago → it's now worth $19,130.
The index would have given you $13,880.
source: institutional data · total return
What just happened
missed estimates
CBRE posted revenue of $28.5B, but the supplied consensus shows EPS of $1.39 versus a $2.64 estimate.
Revenue rose 182% vs. prior year in the latest quarter, while the supplied consensus data flags a sharp EPS shortfall. That gap matters because this stock is priced for clean execution, not messy recoveries.
$28.5B
revenue
$1.39
eps
n/a
n/a
the number that mattered
The 47.35% EPS miss matters more than the revenue surge because multiple compression usually starts when forecasts stop being trustworthy.
-
cbre likely posted solid full-year 2025 results. (note: fourth-quarter results were scheduled to be released soon after this report went to press.) the top and bottom lines probably advanced 14% and 24%, vs. prior year, to $40.75 billion and $6.30 per share, respectively.much of this growth was likely owing to healthy global leasing activity, which increased at a mid- to high-teen pace during the first nine months of 2025. office, industrial, and data center leasing activity supported strong performance in the advisory segment. in addition, the building operations and experience unit probably remained a notable contributor, benefiting from new client wins, contract expansions, and contributions from prior acquisitions.
-
elsewhere, solid execution across the united kingdom, north america, and the middle east likely supported profitability within the project management business.
-
the company has been shifting its business mix.
-
cbre’s resilient operations, such as facilities management, project management, and loan servicing, now account for 60% of total revenue, up from 30% fifteen years ago.these businesses provide a stable, recurring source of revenue compared to the more volatile transactional activities.
-
within this portfolio, data centers and critical infrastructure services have emerged as key growth drivers, accounting for about 10% of total earnings.as artificial intelligence adoption and cloud computing investment expand, management expects demand for these services to increase further.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
CBRE's risk is not mysterious. When tenants delay leases, owners stop transacting, and financing slows, the stock notices before the headline writers do.
high
transaction markets stall again
Leasing, property sales, and financing activity still drive the mood around this stock. If capital markets freeze again, the cyclical side of the model feels it first and the valuation multiple usually follows.
40% of revenue still sits outside the steadier-operations bucket
med
thin margins leave little room for sloppiness
A 4.8% net margin on $39.9B of revenue means labor costs, contract pricing mistakes, or execution misses show up quickly. This is a huge company with a surprisingly small profit buffer.
A 1-point margin hit on $39.9B of revenue is roughly $399M
med
the data center story stays too small to move the whole company
Data centers and critical infrastructure sound like the exciting part because they are. They are also about 10% of earnings. That can help sentiment. It cannot carry the entire stock if the rest of commercial property cools.
About 90% of earnings still come from everything else
CBRE is less cyclical than it used to be. The stock is still cyclical enough that you should watch volumes, margin discipline, and services mix together — not one at a time.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
metric
watch the steadier-revenue mix
60% of revenue now comes from steadier operations. If that figure stalls or slips, the business is getting more exposed to the cycle again.
trend
track whether EPS keeps beating revenue growth
Q4 revenue rose 14% while EPS rose 66%. If that gap narrows fast, the market will start treating the latest quarter as a rebound burst instead of a cleaner earnings setup.
risk
monitor net margin discipline
4.8% net margin leaves little cushion. This is the simplest read on whether revenue growth is becoming actual profit growth or just more activity at similar economics.
calendar
use the next quarterly print as the reality check
You want to see leasing momentum hold, steadier services stay near 60% of revenue, and another quarter where profits rise faster than sales. Miss one and the story gets less clean. Miss all three and the story changes.
Analyst rankings
short-term outlook
average
momentum score 3 — in human-speak, analysts see a stock behaving mostly like the broader market, not breaking away from it
risk profile
average
stability score 3 — not a bunker stock, not chaos either. You get cycle exposure with some ballast.
chart momentum
average
technical score 3 — price action alone is not giving you a dramatic signal right now.
earnings predictability
60 / 100
Predictable enough to build a model. Cyclical enough that one quarter of market thaw can change the tone fast.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutions have been net buying for 3 consecutive quarters — 509 buyers vs. 429 sellers in 3q2025. total institutional holdings: 0.3B shares. net buying for 3 quarters.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
$142
$277
$169
current price
$210
target midpoint · +24% from current · 3-5yr high: $230 (+35% · 8% ann'l return)
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