Lee Enterprises, (LEE) & A.H. Belo Corporation (NYSE:AHC) Financial Analysis

Lee Enterprises, (NYSE: LEE) and A.H. Belo Corporation (NYSE:AHC) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations and profitabiliy.

Profitability

This table compares Lee Enterprises, and A.H. Belo Corporation’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lee Enterprises,	3.89%	-17.38%	3.03%
A.H. Belo Corporation	-8.94%	-0.20%	-0.10%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

35.1% of Lee Enterprises, shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.6% of A.H. Belo Corporation shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.3% of Lee Enterprises, shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.6% of A.H. Belo Corporation shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Lee Enterprises, and A.H. Belo Corporation, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lee Enterprises,	0	0	0	0	N/A
A.H. Belo Corporation	0	0	1	0	3.00

Volatility & Risk

Lee Enterprises, has a beta of 2.18, meaning that its stock price is 118% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, A.H. Belo Corporation has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

A.H. Belo Corporation pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.1%. Lee Enterprises, does not pay a dividend. A.H. Belo Corporation pays out -29.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Lee Enterprises, and A.H. Belo Corporation’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lee Enterprises,	$586.50 million	0.18	$133.05 million	$0.42	4.52
A.H. Belo Corporation	$258.40 million	0.44	$8.28 million	($1.07)	-4.91

Lee Enterprises, has higher revenue and earnings than A.H. Belo Corporation. A.H. Belo Corporation is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lee Enterprises,, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

A.H. Belo Corporation beats Lee Enterprises, on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lee Enterprises,

Lee Enterprises, Incorporated is a provider of local news and information, and a platform for print and digital advertising. The Company’s products included 46 daily and 34 Sunday newspapers, 300 weekly newspapers, and classified and niche publications, as of September 25, 2016. The Company also provides a range of digital products, including video, digital couponing, behavioral targeting, audience retargeting, banner advertisements and social networking. It provides digital marketing services to small and midsized businesses (SMBs), including search engine marketing (SEM), social media, audience extension, business profiles, and Website hosting and design. It offers small business solutions, including search engine optimization (SEO), local online marketing, social media marketing, video advertising and Website design. The markets it caters to are located primarily in the Midwest, Mountain West and West regions of the United States.

About A.H. Belo Corporation

A. H. Belo Corporation is a local news and information publishing company. The Company is engaged in providing commercial printing, distribution and direct mail services, as well as media and digital marketing services. The Company operates through two segments: Publishing and Marketing, Event Marketing and Other Services (MEMO). The Company’s Publishing segment includes its print operations associated with its newspapers, publications and related Websites. The Company’s publishing segment includes the operations of The Dallas Morning News (www.dallasnews.com), a Texas newspaper, and the Denton Record-Chronicle (www.dentonrc.com), a daily newspaper operating in Denton, Texas. The Company’s MEMO segment consists of marketing, event marketing and other businesses. It offers digital marketing solutions through Your Speakeasy, LLC (Speakeasy) and DMV Digital Holdings Company, Inc., and provides event promotion and marketing services through DMN CrowdSource LLC (CrowdSource).