Contrasting Chunghwa Telecom (NYSE:CHT) and Shenandoah Telecommunications (NASDAQ:SHEN)

Shenandoah Telecommunications (NASDAQ:SHEN) and Chunghwa Telecom (NYSE:CHT) are both utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Shenandoah Telecommunications and Chunghwa Telecom”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Shenandoah Telecommunications	$328.06 million	2.24	$190.39 million	($0.56)	-23.93
Chunghwa Telecom	$7.16 billion	N/A	$1.13 billion	$1.53	28.27

Chunghwa Telecom has higher revenue and earnings than Shenandoah Telecommunications. Shenandoah Telecommunications is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Chunghwa Telecom, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Shenandoah Telecommunications and Chunghwa Telecom’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Shenandoah Telecommunications	-8.90%	-3.78%	-1.95%
Chunghwa Telecom	16.27%	9.72%	7.17%

Dividends

Shenandoah Telecommunications pays an annual dividend of $0.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Chunghwa Telecom pays an annual dividend of $1.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Shenandoah Telecommunications pays out -17.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Chunghwa Telecom pays out 85.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Shenandoah Telecommunications has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

62.0% of Shenandoah Telecommunications shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.1% of Chunghwa Telecom shares are held by institutional investors. 4.5% of Shenandoah Telecommunications shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Chunghwa Telecom shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Shenandoah Telecommunications and Chunghwa Telecom, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Shenandoah Telecommunications	1	0	1	0	2.00
Chunghwa Telecom	0	1	0	0	2.00

Shenandoah Telecommunications currently has a consensus target price of $26.00, indicating a potential upside of 94.03%. Given Shenandoah Telecommunications’ higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Shenandoah Telecommunications is more favorable than Chunghwa Telecom.

Volatility and Risk

Shenandoah Telecommunications has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chunghwa Telecom has a beta of 0.26, indicating that its stock price is 74% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Chunghwa Telecom beats Shenandoah Telecommunications on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Shenandoah Telecommunications

Shenandoah Telecommunications Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of broadband communication services and cell tower colocation space in the Mid-Atlantic portion of the United States. It operates in two segments, Broadband and Tower. The company Broadband segment offers broadband, video, and voice services to residential and commercial customers in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky through hybrid fiber coaxial cable under the Shentel brand; and fiber optic services under the Glo Fiber brand name. This segment also leases dark fiber and provides Ethernet and wavelength fiber optic services to enterprise and wholesale customers under the Glo Fiber Enterprise and Glo Fiber Wholesale brand names; and provides voice data and DSL telephone services. The Tower segment owns macro cellular towers and leases colocation space to the wireless communications providers. Shenandoah Telecommunications Company was founded in 1902 and is based in Edinburg, Virginia.

About Chunghwa Telecom

Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides telecommunication services in Taiwan and internationally. It operates through Consumer Business, Enterprise Business, International Business, and Others segments. The company offers local, domestic long distance, and international long distance fixed-line telephone services; mobile services such as prepaid and postpaid plans; broadband plans; and internet and data services. Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Taipei City, Taiwan.