JOE stock is not about buying earnings or dividends - that should be obvious because they have neither.
You need to believe that management can add value to the 685K acres they own (I may be off a few acres). They add value by increasing the value of the acres over many years. Personally, I have a high level of confidence that JOE creates something unique in an area where they are the largest land owner giving them a sustainable competitive advantage. There are very few companies that can say they have as strong a position in their local market as JOE does in the future development of what I believe is some of the most beautiful land in the US.
You can run and crunch the numbers all you want. Here's one way you may want to think about it as an investment. JOE issues 92.2 million shares of stock priced at around $25 per share giving it a market value of $2.3B. They own 685K acres of Florida land, some of which is Grade A, beachfront, some is Grade B, retail / commercial and some if Grade C, mostly rural.
At a share price of $25 you get to buy a piece of JOE at an average price per acre of $3,365 per acre. ($2.3B divided by 685K shares). They pay no dividend and you hope they reinvest the proceeds of any sale into their communities, resorts, future developments, etc.
You need to be in for the long-term and you need to be able to forego the income, but I like this as a long-term position in my portfolio. This will also be a great stock to track to get a sense for the direction of the NW Florida real estate market.
My $0.02.