Financial Analysis: Telefonica (NYSE:TEF) & Hellenic Telecom Organization (OTCMKTS:HLTOY)

Hellenic Telecom Organization (OTCMKTS:HLTOY) and Telefonica (NYSE:TEF) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

1.1% of Telefonica shares are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of Telefonica shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Hellenic Telecom Organization and Telefonica’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hellenic Telecom Organization	12.39%	26.09%	10.03%
Telefonica	-5.88%	8.57%	1.99%

Volatility & Risk

Hellenic Telecom Organization has a beta of 0.34, indicating that its share price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Telefonica has a beta of 0.49, indicating that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Hellenic Telecom Organization and Telefonica, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hellenic Telecom Organization	0	0	0	0	0.00
Telefonica	2	2	0	0	1.50

Dividends

Hellenic Telecom Organization pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Telefonica pays an annual dividend of $0.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Telefonica pays out -52.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Hellenic Telecom Organization and Telefonica”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hellenic Telecom Organization	$2.10 billion	3.53	$518.11 million	N/A	N/A
Telefonica	$44.71 billion	0.66	-$53.02 million	($0.48)	-10.82

Hellenic Telecom Organization has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Telefonica.

Summary

Telefonica beats Hellenic Telecom Organization on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hellenic Telecom Organization

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. provides telecommunications and related services to businesses and individuals primarily in Greece and Romania. It operates through OTE, COSMOTE Group, and Telekom Romania Mobile segments. The company offers fixed-line, Internet access, ICT, and TV production services; and international carrier services. It also provides mobile and satellite telecommunication, electronic money, e-commerce, financing, consultancy and security, real estate, insurance brokerage, training, wholesale telephony, retail, marketing, overdue accounts management, wholesale broadband, and infrastructure services. Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. was incorporated in 1949 and is based in Athens, Greece. Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. operates as a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG.

About Telefonica

Telefónica, S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides telecommunications services in Europe and Latin America. The company offers mobile and related services and products, such as mobile voice, value added, mobile data and internet, wholesale, corporate, roaming, fixed wireless, and trunking and paging services. It also provides fixed telecommunication services, including PSTN lines; ISDN accesses; public telephone services; local, domestic, and international long-distance and fixed-to-mobile communications; corporate communications; supplementary value-added services; video telephony; intelligent network; and telephony information services, as well as leases and sells handset equipment and telephony information services. It also provides Internet and broadband multimedia services comprising internet service provider, portal and network, retail and wholesale broadband access, narrowband switched access, security, internet through fibre to the home, and voice over internet protocol services. In addition, the company offers leased line, virtual private network, fibre optics, web hosting and application, managed hosting, content delivery, outsourcing and application, desktop, and system integration and professional services. Further, the company offers wholesale services for telecommunication operators, including domestic interconnection and international wholesale services; leased lines for other operators; and local loop leasing services, as well as bit stream services, wholesale line rental accesses, and leased ducts for other operators' fiber deployment. Additionally, it provides video/TV services; smart connectivity and services, and consumer IoT products; financial and other payment, security, cloud, advertising, big data, and digital experience services; Aura; open gateway, living apps; smart Wi-Fi, Phoenix, NT, Solar 360, and Movistar Home devices. Telefónica, S.A. was incorporated in 1924 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain.