Comparing Hellenic Telecom Organization (OTCMKTS:HLTOY) and IDT (NYSE:IDT)

Hellenic Telecom Organization (OTCMKTS:HLTOY) and IDT (NYSE:IDT) are both utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, risk and profitability.

Dividends

Hellenic Telecom Organization pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. IDT pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Hellenic Telecom Organization pays out 57.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. IDT pays out 7.5% 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.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hellenic Telecom Organization	15.62%	26.32%	10.20%
IDT	6.53%	27.12%	13.67%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

59.3% of IDT shares are owned by institutional investors. 25.4% of IDT shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Hellenic Telecom Organization and IDT”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hellenic Telecom Organization	$2.10 billion	3.79	$518.11 million	$0.63	15.40
IDT	$1.23 billion	0.99	$76.09 million	$3.22	15.06

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

Risk and Volatility

Hellenic Telecom Organization has a beta of 0.12, suggesting that its stock price is 88% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, IDT has a beta of 0.8, suggesting that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Hellenic Telecom Organization and IDT, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hellenic Telecom Organization	0	0	1	0	3.00
IDT	0	1	0	0	2.00

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 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.