Shenandoah Telecommunications (NASDAQ:SHEN) versus Rogers Communication (NYSE:RCI) Financial Survey

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Rogers Communication and Shenandoah Telecommunications, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rogers Communication	1	4	2	0	2.14
Shenandoah Telecommunications	1	0	1	0	2.00

Rogers Communication currently has a consensus target price of $33.00, suggesting a potential downside of 10.41%. Shenandoah Telecommunications has a consensus target price of $26.00, suggesting a potential upside of 90.90%. Given Shenandoah Telecommunications’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Shenandoah Telecommunications is more favorable than Rogers Communication.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

45.5% of Rogers Communication shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.0% of Shenandoah Telecommunications shares are held by institutional investors. 29.0% of Rogers Communication shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.5% of Shenandoah Telecommunications shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Rogers Communication	$15.04 billion	1.32	$1.27 billion	$2.01	18.33
Shenandoah Telecommunications	$328.06 million	2.28	$190.39 million	($0.56)	-24.32

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

Risk and Volatility

Rogers Communication has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shenandoah Telecommunications has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Rogers Communication pays an annual dividend of $1.46 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Shenandoah Telecommunications pays an annual dividend of $0.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Rogers Communication pays out 72.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Shenandoah Telecommunications pays out -17.9% 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. Shenandoah Telecommunications has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Rogers Communication and Shenandoah Telecommunications’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rogers Communication	7.33%	21.59%	3.72%
Shenandoah Telecommunications	-8.90%	-3.78%	-1.95%

Summary

Rogers Communication beats Shenandoah Telecommunications on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

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.