Liberty Global PLC (NASDAQ: LILAK) and Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) are both mid-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, profitabiliy, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk and institutional ownership.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
54.7% of Liberty Global PLC shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.4% of Charter Communications shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Charter Communications shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Volatility and Risk
Liberty Global PLC has a beta of 1.49, suggesting that its stock price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Charter Communications has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Liberty Global PLC and Charter Communications, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Liberty Global PLC | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Charter Communications | 0 | 10 | 11 | 0 | 2.52 |
Liberty Global PLC currently has a consensus price target of $35.00, indicating a potential upside of 37.31%. Charter Communications has a consensus price target of $341.76, indicating a potential downside of 7.70%. Given Liberty Global PLC’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Liberty Global PLC is more favorable than Charter Communications.
Profitability
This table compares Liberty Global PLC and Charter Communications’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Liberty Global PLC | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Charter Communications | 2.29% | 1.15% | 0.38% |
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares Liberty Global PLC and Charter Communications’ top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | EBITDA | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Liberty Global PLC | $3.33 billion | 1.32 | $1.29 billion | ($2.74) | -9.30 |
| Charter Communications | $40.83 billion | 2.39 | $14.96 billion | $3.45 | 107.32 |
Charter Communications has higher revenue and earnings than Liberty Global PLC. Liberty Global PLC is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Charter Communications, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Charter Communications beats Liberty Global PLC on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
Charter Communications Company Profile
Charter Communications, Inc. (Charter) is a provider of cable services, offering various entertainments, information and communications solutions to residential and commercial customers. The Company’s services include Video Services, Internet Services, Voice Services, Commercial Services and Advertising Services. Its infrastructure consists of a hybrid of fiber and coaxial cable plant with approximately 12.8 million estimated passings, with over 98% at approximately 550 megahertz (MHz) or greater, over 99% of plant miles two-way active and approximately 100% of plant all-digital. It sells its video, Internet and voice services primarily on a subscription basis, often in a bundle of two or more services. It offers Charter Spectrum brand in its all-digital markets. Digital video enables its customers to access advanced video services, such as high definition (HD) television, video on demand programming, an interactive program guide and digital video recorder (DVR) service.
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