Liberty Global (LBTYB) vs. Its Peers Critical Survey

Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYB) is one of 259 public companies in the “Media” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare Liberty Global to similar businesses based on the strength of its profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations and risk.

Volatility and Risk

Liberty Global has a beta of 0.42, indicating that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Liberty Global’s rivals have a beta of 0.96, indicating that their average share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Liberty Global and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Liberty Global	-62.11%	-28.82%	-13.28%
Liberty Global Competitors	-20.20%	-48.09%	-5.13%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Liberty Global and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Liberty Global	1	0	0	0	1.00
Liberty Global Competitors	2252	6874	10827	475	2.47

As a group, “Media” companies have a potential upside of 25.58%. Given Liberty Global’s rivals stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Liberty Global has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Liberty Global and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Liberty Global	$4.88 billion	-$7.14 billion	-1.45
Liberty Global Competitors	$3.30 billion	-$7.90 million	17.53

Liberty Global has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its rivals. Liberty Global is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.5% of Liberty Global shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 38.8% of shares of all “Media” companies are owned by institutional investors. 6.5% of Liberty Global shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 17.5% of shares of all “Media” companies are owned 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.

Summary

Liberty Global rivals beat Liberty Global on 11 of the 13 factors compared.

About Liberty Global

Liberty Global Plc is an international television and broadband company, which engages in the provision of broadband communications services. It operates through the following geographical segments: U.K. and Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Central and Eastern Europe, and Central and Corporate. Its products include broadband, WiFi, connectivity products, TV platforms, and TV content. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.