Contrasting Zayo Group Holdings (ZAYO) & Allot Communications (NASDAQ:ALLT)

Allot Communications (NASDAQ: ALLT) and Zayo Group Holdings (NYSE:ZAYO) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitabiliy, earnings, dividends and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Allot Communications and Zayo Group Holdings’ gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Allot Communications	$82.41 million	1.97	-$7.57 million	($0.34)	-14.41
Zayo Group Holdings	$2.07 billion	3.89	$935.90 million	$0.12	272.83

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

Volatility & Risk

Allot Communications has a beta of 0.54, indicating that its share price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Zayo Group Holdings has a beta of 0.56, indicating that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Allot Communications and Zayo Group Holdings, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Allot Communications	0	2	0	0	2.00
Zayo Group Holdings	1	6	11	0	2.56

Allot Communications currently has a consensus target price of $5.00, indicating a potential upside of 2.04%. Zayo Group Holdings has a consensus target price of $37.75, indicating a potential upside of 15.30%. Given Zayo Group Holdings’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Zayo Group Holdings is more favorable than Allot Communications.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

42.3% of Allot Communications shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.4% of Zayo Group Holdings shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.8% of Zayo Group Holdings shares 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.

Profitability

This table compares Allot Communications and Zayo Group Holdings’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Allot Communications	-14.06%	-5.88%	-4.75%
Zayo Group Holdings	1.53%	5.47%	0.96%

Summary

Zayo Group Holdings beats Allot Communications on 13 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Allot Communications

Allot Communications Ltd. (Allot) is a global provider of security and monetization solutions that enable mobile, fixed and enterprise service providers to protect and personalize the digital experience. The Company has a global and diverse customer base composed of mobile and fixed broadband service providers, cable operators, private networks, data centers, governments and enterprises, such as financial and educational institutions. Its integrated solutions include analytics, traffic management, video caching and optimization, policy control and charging, service enablement and security solutions. The Allot Service Gateway platforms (including Allot Service Gateway Tera, and Allot Service Gateway 9500), as well as Allot NetEnforcer platforms are based on technology, designed for in-line deployment in a range of networks. Allot service Gateway platforms are designed for deployment both on traditional and virtualized network access infrastructure.

About Zayo Group Holdings

Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. provides communications infrastructure services, including fiber and bandwidth connectivity, colocation and cloud infrastructure to a range of businesses. The Company operates in five segments: Dark Fiber Solutions, Network Connectivity, Colocation and Cloud Infrastructure, Zayo Canada and Other. Its products include leased dark fiber, fiber to cellular towers and small cell sites, wavelength connections, Ethernet, Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity and cloud services. Its products and services enable high-bandwidth applications, such as cloud-based computing, video, mobile, social media and machine-to-machine connectivity. As of March 1, 2017, the Company operated 8,100 route miles of long haul fiber and 4,000 miles of dense metro fiber across Denver, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Spokane and Boise, with on-net connectivity to over 3,100 enterprise buildings and 100 data centers.