Consolidated Communications (CNSL) Competitors

IDT (NYSE:IDT) and Consolidated Communications (NASDAQ:CNSL) are both small-cap utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends, community ranking and institutional ownership.

Is IDT or CNSL more profitable?

IDT has a net margin of 6.10% compared to Consolidated Communications' net margin of -17.15%. IDT's return on equity of 22.18% beat Consolidated Communications' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
IDT	6.10%	22.18%	10.03%
Consolidated Communications	-17.15%	-34.09%	-3.06%

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in IDT or CNSL?

Consolidated Communications received 127 more outperform votes than IDT when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 63.18% of users gave IDT an outperform vote while only 51.80% of users gave Consolidated Communications an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
IDT	Outperform Votes 175 63.18%	Underperform Votes 102 36.82%
Consolidated Communications	Outperform Votes 302 51.80%	Underperform Votes 281 48.20%

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, IDT or CNSL?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
IDT	$1.21B	0.96	$64.45M	$2.92	15.78
Consolidated Communications	$1.09B	0.51	-$250.51M	-$2.05	-2.30

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in IDT or CNSL?

59.3% of IDT shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.0% of Consolidated Communications shares are held by institutional investors. 25.3% of IDT shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.5% of Consolidated Communications shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the media favor IDT or CNSL?

In the previous week, IDT had 4 more articles in the media than Consolidated Communications. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for IDT and 1 mentions for Consolidated Communications. Consolidated Communications' average media sentiment score of 1.88 beat IDT's score of -0.01 indicating that Consolidated Communications is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
IDT	Neutral
Consolidated Communications	Very Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, IDT or CNSL?

IDT has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Consolidated Communications has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is IDT or CNSL a better dividend stock?

IDT pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Consolidated Communications pays an annual dividend of $1.55 per share and has a dividend yield of 32.8%. IDT pays out 6.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Consolidated Communications pays out -75.6% 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. Consolidated Communications is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

IDT beats Consolidated Communications on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.