Contrasting Grupo Televisa (NYSE:TV) & Telefonica (NYSE:TEF)

Grupo Televisa (NYSE:TV) and Telefonica (NYSE:TEF) are both utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Volatility & Risk

Grupo Televisa has a beta of 1.96, meaning that its stock price is 96% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Telefonica has a beta of 0.27, meaning that its stock price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Grupo Televisa pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Telefonica pays an annual dividend of $0.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.0%. Grupo Televisa pays out -7.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Telefonica pays out -61.0% 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. Telefonica is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Grupo Televisa and Telefonica”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Grupo Televisa	$3.42 billion	0.44	-$453.78 million	($1.01)	-2.70
Telefonica	$40.55 billion	0.58	-$53.02 million	($0.41)	-10.18

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Grupo Televisa and Telefonica, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Grupo Televisa	1	2	3	0	2.33
Telefonica	4	3	0	0	1.43

Grupo Televisa currently has a consensus target price of $5.07, suggesting a potential upside of 85.93%. Telefonica has a consensus target price of $4.20, suggesting a potential upside of 0.60%. Given Grupo Televisa’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Grupo Televisa is more favorable than Telefonica.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

55.8% of Grupo Televisa shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.1% of Telefonica shares are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of Telefonica shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Grupo Televisa and Telefonica’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Grupo Televisa	-18.27%	-9.49%	-4.37%
Telefonica	-5.23%	8.54%	1.96%

Summary

Telefonica beats Grupo Televisa on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Grupo Televisa

Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates cable companies and provides direct-to-home satellite pay television system in Mexico and the United States. It operates through three segments: Cable, Sky, and Other Businesses. The Cable segment operates cable multiple system that provides basic and premium television subscription, pay-per-view, installation, Internet subscription, and telephone and mobile services subscription, as well as local and national advertising services; and telecommunication facilities, which offers data and long-distance services solutions to carriers and other telecommunications service providers through its fiber-optic network. The Sky segment offers direct-to-home broadcast satellite pay television services comprising program, installation, and equipment rental services to subscribers in Mexico, Central America, and the Dominican Republic; and national advertising sales. The Other Businesses segment is involved in the sports and show business promotion, soccer, publishing and publishing distribution, and gaming, as well as provides transmission concessions and facilities. The company was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico.

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.