Head to Head Review: Deutsche Telekom (OTCMKTS:DTEGY) and Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI)

Deutsche Telekom (OTCMKTS:DTEGY) and Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) are both communication services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Deutsche Telekom and Cogent Communications, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Deutsche Telekom	0	4	2	0	2.33
Cogent Communications	2	6	2	0	2.00

Cogent Communications has a consensus price target of $18.24, indicating a potential upside of 310.91%. Given Cogent Communications’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Cogent Communications is more favorable than Deutsche Telekom.

Volatility & Risk

Deutsche Telekom has a beta of 0.39, meaning that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cogent Communications has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Deutsche Telekom and Cogent Communications’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Deutsche Telekom	7.32%	11.58%	3.61%
Cogent Communications	-3.53%	N/A	-4.58%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Deutsche Telekom and Cogent Communications”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Deutsche Telekom	$134.70 billion	1.03	$10.87 billion	$2.16	13.45
Cogent Communications	$975.77 million	0.23	-$182.17 million	($0.71)	-6.25

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.4% of Cogent Communications shares are held by institutional investors. 4.2% of Cogent Communications shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Deutsche Telekom beats Cogent Communications on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom is a telecommunications and technology company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. Established in 1995 following the privatization of Germany’s state-owned postal and telecommunications services, it provides mobile and fixed-line communications, broadband internet, television, and digital services. The company serves consumers and businesses in Germany and other European markets, and has a major presence in the United States through T-Mobile US. Its offerings include mobile voice and data plans, fiber and other fixed-network connections, and information technology and communications solutions for business customers.

About Cogent Communications

Cogent Communications is a facilities-based provider of internet and data-transport services. Its offerings include dedicated internet access, IP transit, Ethernet and wavelength services, and colocation, serving businesses, communications carriers, government agencies, and other organizations. The company operates a high-capacity network across North America and Europe. It connects customer locations to the internet and provides network capacity for organizations that need to move data between sites or across networks.