COMP vs CSAN: How Compass and Cosan Compare (2026)

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Reading it: CSAN is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. COMP and CSAN share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined COMP and CSAN exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Compass, Inc. is a tech-enabled residential real estate company that operates an owned-brokerage model in the United States. It recruits real estate agents onto a proprietary software platform that handles marketing, client management, and transaction workflow, and it earns revenue primarily as a share of the sales commissions its agents generate when homes change hands. Because agents keep most of each commission under negotiated splits, Compass keeps only a thin slice of a very large revenue number, so its margins are structurally low and its results track the volume of home sales closely. The company has expanded into adjacent services such as title, escrow, and mortgage referrals to capture more of each transaction.

Full COMP guide

Cosan S.A. began in 1936 as a sugar mill operator in Sao Paulo state and is now a holding company that sits above several separate Brazilian businesses. Compass distributes natural gas, including Comgas, the country's largest piped-gas utility, and operates the Edge regasification terminal at the Port of Santos. Rumo runs the largest freight rail network in Brazil, hauling grain and sugar to Santos and to northern ports. Moove blends and sells lubricants as the Mobil licensee across Brazil, parts of South America and Europe. Radar holds farmland. Raizen, the roughly 50/50 sugar, ethanol and fuel-distribution joint venture with Shell, was historically the largest piece and is now the source of the group's damage. Cosan employs roughly ~29,000 people, reports in Brazilian reais, and trades in Sao Paulo as CSAN3; one ADS on the NYSE represents one common share.

Full CSAN guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• COMP drivers: Scale and market leadership; Improving profitability.
• CSAN drivers: Deleveraging by divestment rather than by earnings; Compass as the funded cash engine.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Compass is highly exposed to the housing cycle: when mortgage rates rise or home sales slow, commission revenue falls quickly while many costs remain. For CSAN, raizen is the open wound: an extrajudicial reorganization is ongoing, Cosan has said it has no legal or constructive obligation to fund it, and creditors may test that position.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick COMP if you believe its drivers more; CSAN if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the COMP and CSAN guides.

COMP. A residential brokerage like Compass reports a very large revenue number, but most of each commission is paid out to agents, so the figure to watch is adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow rather than top-line growth alone. The business is highly cyclical: transaction volume, and therefore revenue, swings with mortgage rates and home-sale activity, so a strong or weak quarter often reflects the housing market more than company-specific execution. Because margins are thin and GAAP results can flip between small profits and losses depending on stock-based compensation and merger costs, investors typically look at agent count, market share, EBITDA margin trend, and cash generation across a full cycle.

CSAN. There is no trailing price-to-earnings figure because Cosan lost roughly ~$1.8 billion (about ~R$9.7 billion) over the last twelve months, mostly on Raizen impairments rather than on operations. Valuation work on CSAN is therefore a sum-of-the-parts exercise: mark Compass, Rumo, Moove and Radar, subtract holding-company debt near ~R$11.5 billion, and assign zero to Raizen as the company itself now does. The next report is scheduled for around ~August 14, 2026.

Headline figures (approximate, FY2025 results (full year ended December 2025) and Q1 2026): COMP shows revenue (fy2025) ~$6.96 billion (+23.7% YoY), principal agents ~21,000 (+~19% YoY), market share (q3 2025) ~5.6% (pre-Anywhere), adjusted ebitda (fy2025) ~$293 million (~4.2% margin); CSAN shows revenue (ttm) ~$7.6 billion, reported in Brazilian reais, q1 2026 net sales ~R$9.0 billion, down from ~R$9.7 billion, q1 2026 ebitda ~R$3.2 billion, up from ~R$2.0 billion, q1 2026 net loss ~R$1.3 billion, narrowed from ~R$1.9 billion.

COMP and CSAN are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined COMP and CSAN exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.