Reviewing Rogers Communication (NYSE:RCI) and IDT (NYSE:IDT)

IDT (NYSE:IDT) and Rogers Communication (NYSE:RCI) are both utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for IDT and Rogers Communication, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
IDT	0	0	1	0	3.00
Rogers Communication	1	4	2	0	2.14

Rogers Communication has a consensus target price of $33.00, suggesting a potential downside of 8.84%. Given Rogers Communication’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Rogers Communication is more favorable than IDT.

Risk and Volatility

IDT has a beta of 0.74, indicating that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Rogers Communication has a beta of 0.78, indicating that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares IDT and Rogers Communication’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
IDT	6.18%	27.03%	13.45%
Rogers Communication	7.33%	21.59%	3.72%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares IDT and Rogers Communication”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
IDT	$1.23 billion	0.98	$76.09 million	$3.01	15.83
Rogers Communication	$15.04 billion	1.30	$1.27 billion	$2.01	18.01

Rogers Communication has higher revenue and earnings than IDT. IDT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Rogers Communication, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

59.3% of IDT shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.5% of Rogers Communication shares are held by institutional investors. 25.3% of IDT shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 29.0% of Rogers Communication shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

IDT pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Rogers Communication pays an annual dividend of $1.46 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. IDT pays out 8.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Rogers Communication pays out 72.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. IDT has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Summary

Rogers Communication beats IDT on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About IDT

IDT Corporation provides communications and payment services in the United States, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through Fintech, National Retail Solutions, net2phone, and Traditional Communications segments. The company operates point of sale, a terminal-based platform which provides independent retailers store management software, electronic payment processing, and other ancillary merchant services; and provides marketers with digital out-of-home advertising and transaction data. It also offers BOSS Money for international money remittance, and related value and payment transfer services; and Leaf, a digital wallet services which operates money transfer businesses, as well as net2phone, a unified cloud communication services, which includes voice, texting, and chat services to enable smarter business conversations. In addition, the company provides IDT Digital Payments enables businesses, entrepreneurs, and developers to offer prepaid digital offerings including mobile airtime top-up, mobile data bundles, digital gift cards, and prepaid utility payments through its Zendit platform; and BOSS Revolution Calling, which provides international long-distance voice services primarily to immigrant communities in the United States and Canada. Further, it offers IDT Global, a wholesale provider of international voice and SMS termination, and outsourced traffic management solutions to telecoms; and IDT Express, a unique self-serve portal that offers SMBs the power to purchase DIDs, manage IPs, select termination quality, make payments, and other services. The company also provides Awards2Go, a B2B incentive, loyalty, and customer appreciation gift card solution; and IO Security which provides automation to remediation. IDT Corporation was incorporated in 1978 and is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.

About Rogers Communication

Rogers Communications Inc. operates as a communications and media company in Canada. It operates through three segments: Wireless, Cable, and Media. The company offers mobile Internet access, wireless voice and enhanced voice, device financing, device protection, global voice and data roaming, wireless home phone, bridging landline, machine-to-machine and Internet of Things solutions, and advanced wireless solutions for businesses, as well as device shipping and express pickup services; and postpaid and prepaid services under the Rogers, Fido, and chatr brands. It also provides internet and WiFi services; and monitoring, security, automation, energy efficiency, and smart control through smartphone app. In addition, the company offers local and network TV; on-demand television; cloud-based digital video recorders; voice-activated remote controls, and integrated apps; personal video recorders; linear and time-shifted programming; digital specialty channels; and 4K television programming. Further, it provides residential and small business local telephony services; voicemail, call waiting, and long distance; voice, data networking, Internet protocol (IP), and Ethernet services; private networking, Internet, IP voice, and cloud solutions; optical wave and multi-protocol label switching services; information technology and network technologies; cable access network services; telecommunications technical consulting services; and season games through television, smartphones, tablets, personal computers, and other streaming devices, as well as operates Ignite TV and Ignite TV app. Additionally, the company owns Toronto Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre event venue; and operates Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet World, Citytv, OMNI, FX (Canada), FXX (Canada), and OLN television networks, as well as 52 AM and FM radio stations. It also offers Rogers and the Rogers World Elite Mastercard. The company was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.