Comparing KT Corp (KT) & Shaw Communications (SJR)

KT Corp (NYSE: KT) and Shaw Communications (NYSE:SJR) are both mid-cap telecommunications services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability and risk.

Profitability

This table compares KT Corp and Shaw Communications’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
KT Corp	4.00%	7.03%	2.97%
Shaw Communications	10.01%	9.31%	3.57%

Dividends

Shaw Communications pays an annual dividend of $0.91 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. KT Corp does not pay a dividend. Shaw Communications pays out 113.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares KT Corp and Shaw Communications’ revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
KT Corp	$20.83 billion	0.42	$3.99 billion	N/A	N/A
Shaw Communications	$4.18 billion	2.60	$1.67 billion	$0.80	27.50

KT Corp has higher revenue and earnings than Shaw Communications.

Risk and Volatility

KT Corp has a beta of 0.46, suggesting that its share price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shaw Communications has a beta of 0.91, suggesting that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

23.7% of KT Corp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.2% of Shaw Communications shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of KT Corp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Shaw Communications shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for KT Corp and Shaw Communications, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
KT Corp	0	0	1	0	3.00
Shaw Communications	1	3	3	0	2.29

Shaw Communications has a consensus price target of $27.33, suggesting a potential upside of 24.24%. Given Shaw Communications’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Shaw Communications is more favorable than KT Corp.

Summary

Shaw Communications beats KT Corp on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About KT Corp

KT Corporation is a telecommunications service provider. The Company’s segments include the Customer/Marketing Group, the Finance Business Group and the Others Group. The Customer/Marketing Group segment is engaged in providing various telecommunication services to individual/home/corporate customers and the convergence business. The Finance Business Group segment is engaged in providing various financial services, such as credit card. The Others Group segment includes security services, satellite service, information technology and network services, and satellite television services, as well as global business services, which provide global network services to multinational or domestic corporate customers and telecommunications companies. The Company’s principal services include mobile voice and data telecommunications services; fixed-line services; credit card processing and other financial services, and various other services.

About Shaw Communications

Shaw Communications Inc. (Shaw) is a diversified connectivity provider. The Company operates through four divisions: Consumer, Wireless, Business Network Services and Business Infrastructure Services. Under the Consumer division, the Company offers Cable telecommunications and Satellite video services to residential customers. Its Business Network Services division offers data networking, Cable telecommunications, Satellite video and fleet tracking services to businesses and public sector entities. Its Business Infrastructure Services division offers data center colocation, cloud technology and managed information technology (IT) solutions to businesses. The Company offers wireless services for voice and data communications through its Wireless division. Its wireline services offer approximately 120 high definition (HD) channels and over 10,000 on-demand, pay-per-view and subscription movie and television programming titles.