Head to Head Survey: Shenandoah Telecommunications (NASDAQ:SHEN) vs. TELUS (NYSE:TU)

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Shenandoah Telecommunications	-9.98%	-4.23%	-2.15%
TELUS	5.71%	8.76%	2.50%

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Shenandoah Telecommunications	$351.67 million	1.55	$190.39 million	($0.63)	-15.71
TELUS	$14.88 billion	1.47	$724.69 million	$0.55	25.95

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

62.0% of Shenandoah Telecommunications shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.4% of TELUS shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.5% of Shenandoah Telecommunications shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of TELUS shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Shenandoah Telecommunications pays an annual dividend of $0.11 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. TELUS pays an annual dividend of $1.21 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.5%. Shenandoah Telecommunications pays out -17.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. TELUS pays out 220.0% 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 raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years and TELUS has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years. TELUS is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Shenandoah Telecommunications and TELUS, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Shenandoah Telecommunications	1	0	1	0	2.00
TELUS	0	8	1	0	2.11

Shenandoah Telecommunications presently has a consensus target price of $26.00, indicating a potential upside of 162.63%. TELUS has a consensus target price of $17.75, indicating a potential upside of 24.34%. Given Shenandoah Telecommunications’ higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Shenandoah Telecommunications is more favorable than TELUS.

Volatility and Risk

Shenandoah Telecommunications has a beta of 0.8, indicating that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TELUS has a beta of 0.71, indicating that its stock price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

TELUS beats Shenandoah Telecommunications on 10 of the 16 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 TELUS

TELUS Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of telecommunications and information technology products and services in Canada. It operates through Technology Solutions and Digitally-Led Customer Experiences segments. The Technology Solutions segment offers a range of telecommunications products and services; network services; healthcare services; mobile technologies equipment; data services, such as internet protocol; television; hosting, managed information technology, and cloud-based services; software, data management, and data analytics-driven smart food-chain and consumer goods technologies; home and business security; healthcare software and technology solutions; and voice and other telecommunications services, as well as mobile and fixed voice and data telecommunications services and products. The Digitally-Led Customer Experiences segment provides digital customer experience and digital-enablement transformation solutions, including artificial intelligence and content management solutions. The company was formerly known as TELUS Communications Inc. and changed its name to TELUS Corporation in February 2005. TELUS Corporation was incorporated in 1998 and is based in Vancouver, Canada.