Financial Survey: Shenandoah Telecommunications (NASDAQ:SHEN) and Orange (OTC:ORANY)

Orange (OTC:ORANY) and Shenandoah Telecommunications (NASDAQ:SHEN) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Dividends

Orange pays an annual dividend of $0.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Shenandoah Telecommunications pays an annual dividend of $0.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Shenandoah Telecommunications pays out 2.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Orange and Shenandoah Telecommunications, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Orange	0	1	0	0	2.00
Shenandoah Telecommunications	0	0	1	0	3.00

Shenandoah Telecommunications has a consensus price target of $26.00, suggesting a potential upside of 141.19%. Given Shenandoah Telecommunications’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Shenandoah Telecommunications is more favorable than Orange.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

12.2% of Orange shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.0% of Shenandoah Telecommunications shares are held by institutional investors. 4.4% of Shenandoah Telecommunications shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Orange and Shenandoah Telecommunications”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Orange	$43.57 billion	0.70	$2.35 billion	N/A	N/A
Shenandoah Telecommunications	$328.06 million	1.79	$8.04 million	$3.79	2.84

Orange has higher revenue and earnings than Shenandoah Telecommunications.

Risk & Volatility

Orange has a beta of 0.24, suggesting that its stock price is 76% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shenandoah Telecommunications has a beta of 0.61, suggesting that its stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Orange and Shenandoah Telecommunications’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Orange	N/A	N/A	N/A
Shenandoah Telecommunications	58.03%	-2.50%	-1.40%

Summary

Shenandoah Telecommunications beats Orange on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Shenandoah Telecommunications

Shenandoah Telecommunications Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of broadband communication services and cell tower colocation space in the Mid-Atlantic portion of the United States. It operates in two segments, Broadband and Tower. The company Broadband segment offers broadband, video, and voice services to residential and commercial customers in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky through hybrid fiber coaxial cable under the Shentel brand; and fiber optic services under the Glo Fiber brand name. This segment also leases dark fiber and provides Ethernet and wavelength fiber optic services to enterprise and wholesale customers under the Glo Fiber Enterprise and Glo Fiber Wholesale brand names; and provides voice data and DSL telephone services. The Tower segment owns macro cellular towers and leases colocation space to the wireless communications providers. Shenandoah Telecommunications Company was founded in 1902 and is based in Edinburg, Virginia.