Reviewing Telecom Argentina (NYSE:TEO) & Orange (OTC:ORANY)

Telecom Argentina (NYSE:TEO) and Orange (OTC:ORANY) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Telecom Argentina and Orange, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Telecom Argentina	2	0	0	0	1.00
Orange	0	1	0	0	2.00

Telecom Argentina presently has a consensus price target of $7.20, suggesting a potential downside of 40.05%. Given Telecom Argentina’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Telecom Argentina is more favorable than Orange.

Dividends

Telecom Argentina pays an annual dividend of $0.29 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Orange pays an annual dividend of $0.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Telecom Argentina pays out -161.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Telecom Argentina and Orange”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Telecom Argentina	$1,726.35 billion	0.00	-$979.37 million	($0.18)	-66.72
Orange	$43.57 billion	0.70	$2.35 billion	N/A	N/A

Orange has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Telecom Argentina.

Profitability

This table compares Telecom Argentina and Orange’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Telecom Argentina	-1.91%	-1.26%	-0.59%
Orange	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk & Volatility

Telecom Argentina has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Orange has a beta of 0.24, suggesting that its stock price is 76% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

12.2% of Orange shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Telecom Argentina shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Orange beats Telecom Argentina on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Telecom Argentina

Telecom Argentina S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides telecommunications services. The company offers mobile telecommunications services, including voice communications, high-speed mobile Internet content and applications download, online streaming, and other services; and sells mobile communication devices, such as handsets, Modems MiFi and wingles, and smart watches. It also internet connectivity products, including virtual private network services, traditional Internet protocol links, and other products; and programming and other cable television services. In addition, the company offers telephone services, including local, domestic, and international long-distance telephone services, as well as public telephone services; and other related supplementary services, such as call waiting, call forwarding, conference calls, caller ID, voice mail, itemized billing, and maintenance services. Further, it provides Infrastructure, interconnection, datacenter, Internet, value added, and international long-distance services; and data services, including data transmission, virtual private networks, symmetric Internet access, national and international signal transport, and videoconferencing services; Personal Pay, a digital wallet service; and management and administration services. The company was formerly known as Cablevisión S.A. and changed its name to Telecom Argentina S.A. in January 2018. Telecom Argentina S.A. was founded in 1979 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

About Orange

Orange S.A. provides fixed telephony, mobile telecommunication, data transmission, and other value-added services to individuals, professionals, and large companies in France and internationally. It offers mobile services, such as voice, SMS, and data; fixed broadband and narrowband services, as well as B2B fixed solutions and networks services, including voice and data services. The company also sells handsets, broadband equipment, connected devices, and accessories. In addition, it provides IT and integration services comprising unified communication and collaboration services, such as LAN and telephony, consultancy, integration, and project management; hosting and infrastructure services, including cloud computing; customer relations management and other applications services; security services; and video conferencing, as well as sells related equipment. Further, the company offers national and international roaming services; online advertising services; and mobile virtual network operators, network sharing, and mobile financial services, as well as sells equipment to external distributors, brokers, and operators. It markets its products and services under the Orange brand. The company was formerly known as France Telecom and changed its name to Orange S.A. in July 2013. Orange S.A. was incorporated in 1991 and is headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.