Liberty Broadband (NASDAQ:LBRDK) and WideOpenWest (NYSE:WOW) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Liberty Broadband and WideOpenWest's top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
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Liberty Broadband | $14.86 million | 1,957.40 | $117.22 million | $0.64 | 232.69 |
WideOpenWest | $1.15 billion | 1.04 | $36.40 million | $0.45 | 30.38 |
Liberty Broadband has higher earnings, but lower revenue than WideOpenWest. WideOpenWest is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Liberty Broadband, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Risk and Volatility
Liberty Broadband has a beta of 1.04, meaning that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WideOpenWest has a beta of 1.6, meaning that its share price is 60% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Liberty Broadband and WideOpenWest, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
---|
Liberty Broadband | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 2.80 |
WideOpenWest | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2.67 |
Liberty Broadband presently has a consensus target price of $181.80, suggesting a potential upside of 22.08%. WideOpenWest has a consensus target price of $11.6667, suggesting a potential downside of 14.65%. Given Liberty Broadband's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Liberty Broadband is more favorable than WideOpenWest.
Profitability
This table compares Liberty Broadband and WideOpenWest's net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
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Liberty Broadband | 1,375.63% | 2.12% | 1.81% |
WideOpenWest | 1.78% | -11.04% | 1.11% |
Institutional and Insider Ownership
56.0% of Liberty Broadband shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.2% of WideOpenWest shares are owned by institutional investors. 10.8% of Liberty Broadband shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of WideOpenWest shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
Liberty Broadband beats WideOpenWest on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.