Critical Analysis: SES (SGBAF) vs. The Competition

SES (OTCMKTS:SGBAF) is one of 202 publicly-traded companies in the “Diversified Telecommunication Services” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare SES to related businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

33.0% of shares of all “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 19.6% of shares of all “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

SES has a beta of 1.02, indicating that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SES’s peers have a beta of -4.74, indicating that their average share price is 574% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares SES and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
SES	$2.97 billion	-$107.48 million	-6.09
SES Competitors	$12.35 billion	$976.35 million	-191.44

SES’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than SES. SES is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares SES and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SES	-8.96%	-9.43%	-1.93%
SES Competitors	-12.22%	-229.17%	-3.14%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for SES and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SES	2	1	0	0	1.33
SES Competitors	1679	5131	7360	367	2.44

As a group, “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies have a potential upside of 21.74%. Given SES’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe SES has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Dividends

SES pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.3%. SES pays out -56.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 13.2% and pay out 32.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

SES peers beat SES on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

SES Company Profile

SES S.A. provides satellite-based data transmission capacity and ancillary services worldwide. The company offers content connectivity solutions, including network spanning satellite and ground infrastructure to create, deliver, and manage video and data solutions. It also provides data connectivity services through its fleet of geostationary earth orbit and medium earth orbit satellites to the aviation, cloud, cruise, energy, government, maritime, and telco and mobile network operator industries. In addition, the company offers video services, which includes end-to-end managed services to audience; and provides multi-screen and multi-device viewing experiences on linear channels, video-on-demand, streaming platforms, and social media sites for broadcasters, platform operators, and sports organizations. Further, it provides linear video aggregation and distribution, such as direct-to-home, direct-to-cable, and internet protocol TV households; channel management solutions comprising playout; and live feeds and redundancy features. The company was formerly known as SES Global SA and changed its name to SES S.A. in December 2006. SES S.A. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Betzdorf, Luxembourg.