Shenandoah Telecommunications (NASDAQ:SHEN) & VEON (NASDAQ:VEON) Head to Head Contrast

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

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares VEON and Shenandoah Telecommunications”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
VEON	$4.15 billion	0.90	$415.00 million	$13.64	3.70
Shenandoah Telecommunications	$328.06 million	2.19	$190.39 million	($0.56)	-23.43

VEON has higher revenue and earnings than Shenandoah Telecommunications. Shenandoah Telecommunications is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than VEON, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

21.3% of VEON shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.0% of Shenandoah Telecommunications shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.5% of Shenandoah Telecommunications shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

VEON has a beta of 1.58, meaning that its stock price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shenandoah Telecommunications has a beta of 0.81, meaning that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
VEON	23.75%	72.76%	12.22%
Shenandoah Telecommunications	-8.90%	-3.78%	-1.95%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for VEON and Shenandoah Telecommunications, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
VEON	0	2	1	1	2.75
Shenandoah Telecommunications	1	0	1	0	2.00

VEON presently has a consensus price target of $60.00, suggesting a potential upside of 18.79%. Shenandoah Telecommunications has a consensus price target of $26.00, suggesting a potential upside of 98.17%. Given Shenandoah Telecommunications’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Shenandoah Telecommunications is more favorable than VEON.

Dividends

VEON pays an annual dividend of $0.23 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Shenandoah Telecommunications pays an annual dividend of $0.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. VEON pays out 1.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Shenandoah Telecommunications pays out -17.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Shenandoah Telecommunications has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Shenandoah Telecommunications is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

VEON beats Shenandoah Telecommunications on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About VEON

VEON Ltd., a digital operator, provides connectivity and internet services in Pakistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. It offers mobile telecommunications services, including value added and call completion, national and international roaming, wireless Internet access, mobile financial, and mobile bundle services; data connectivity, cross border transit, voice, Internet, and data services; fixed-line telecommunications using intercity fiber optic networks; and Internet-TV using Fiber to the building technology. The company also sells equipment, infrastructure, and accessories. VEON Ltd. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

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.