Head-To-Head Comparison: WideOpenWest (NYSE:WOW) versus Naspers (OTCMKTS:NPSNY)

WideOpenWest (NYSE:WOW) and Naspers (OTCMKTS:NPSNY) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for WideOpenWest and Naspers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WideOpenWest	0	2	0	0	2.00
Naspers	0	0	0	1	4.00

WideOpenWest currently has a consensus price target of $5.85, indicating a potential upside of 13.70%. Given WideOpenWest’s higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe WideOpenWest is more favorable than Naspers.

Profitability

This table compares WideOpenWest and Naspers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WideOpenWest	-10.70%	-32.26%	-4.31%
Naspers	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk & Volatility

WideOpenWest has a beta of 1.28, meaning that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Naspers has a beta of 0.35, meaning that its share price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

87.8% of WideOpenWest shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.1% of Naspers shares are held by institutional investors. 3.0% of WideOpenWest shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Naspers shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares WideOpenWest and Naspers”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
WideOpenWest	$604.80 million	0.73	-$58.80 million	($0.79)	-6.51
Naspers	$7.18 billion	8.04	$5.24 billion	N/A	N/A

Naspers has higher revenue and earnings than WideOpenWest.

Summary

Naspers beats WideOpenWest on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About WideOpenWest

WideOpenWest, Inc. provides high speed data, cable television, and digital telephony services to residential and business services customers in the United States. The company's video services include basic cable services that comprise local broadcast television and local community programming; digital cable services; WOW tv+ that offers traditional cable video and cloud DVR functionality, voice remote with Google Assistant, and Netflix integration along with access to various streaming services and apps through the Google Play Store; and commercial-free movies, TV shows, sports, and other special event entertainment programs. Its telephony services consist of local and long-distance telephone services; business telephony and data services include fiber based, office-to-office metro Ethernet, session-initiated protocol trunking, colocation infrastructure, cloud computing, managed backup, and recovery services. The company was formerly known as WideOpenWest Kite, Inc. and changed its name to WideOpenWest, Inc. in March 2017. WideOpenWest, Inc. was founded in 2001 and is based in Englewood, Colorado.

About Naspers

Naspers Limited operates in the consumer internet industry in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America. The company operates through Classifieds, Food Delivery, Payments and Fintech, Etail, Edtech, Social and Internet Platforms, Media24, and Other Ecommerce segments. It holds investments in classifieds, food delivery, payments and fintech, education, health, and ecommerce, as well as ventures, and social and internet platforms. The company also prints, publishes, and distributes newspapers, magazines, and books, as well as provides ecommerce and media logistics services. Naspers Limited was incorporated in 1915 and is headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa.