Critical Survey: BCE (NYSE:BCE) & Grupo Televisa (NYSE:TV)

Grupo Televisa (NYSE:TV) and BCE (NYSE:BCE) are both utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Grupo Televisa and BCE, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Grupo Televisa	1	2	3	0	2.33
BCE	5	2	4	1	2.08

Grupo Televisa currently has a consensus price target of $4.73, suggesting a potential upside of 62.04%. BCE has a consensus price target of $29.00, suggesting a potential upside of 27.16%. Given Grupo Televisa’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Grupo Televisa is more favorable than BCE.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Grupo Televisa and BCE”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Grupo Televisa	$59.56 billion	0.03	-$453.78 million	($1.01)	-2.89
BCE	$24.49 billion	0.87	$251.05 million	$4.81	4.74

BCE has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Grupo Televisa. Grupo Televisa is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BCE, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Grupo Televisa has a beta of 2.02, indicating that its stock price is 102% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BCE has a beta of 0.62, indicating that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

55.8% of Grupo Televisa shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.5% of BCE shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of BCE shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Grupo Televisa and BCE’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Grupo Televisa	-18.27%	-9.49%	-4.37%
BCE	1.96%	18.89%	3.74%

Dividends

Grupo Televisa pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. BCE pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Grupo Televisa pays out -7.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. BCE pays out 25.8% 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.

Summary

BCE beats Grupo Televisa on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Grupo Televisa

Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates cable companies and provides direct-to-home satellite pay television system in Mexico and the United States. It operates through three segments: Cable, Sky, and Other Businesses. The Cable segment operates cable multiple system that provides basic and premium television subscription, pay-per-view, installation, Internet subscription, and telephone and mobile services subscription, as well as local and national advertising services; and telecommunication facilities, which offers data and long-distance services solutions to carriers and other telecommunications service providers through its fiber-optic network. The Sky segment offers direct-to-home broadcast satellite pay television services comprising program, installation, and equipment rental services to subscribers in Mexico, Central America, and the Dominican Republic; and national advertising sales. The Other Businesses segment is involved in the sports and show business promotion, soccer, publishing and publishing distribution, and gaming, as well as provides transmission concessions and facilities. The company was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico.

About BCE

BCE Inc., a communications company, provides wireless, wireline, Internet, and television (TV) services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in Canada. The company operates through two segments, Bell Communication and Technology Services, and Bell Media. The Bell Communication and Technology Services segment provides wireless products and services including mobile data and voice plans and devices; wireline products and services comprising data, including internet access, internet protocol television, cloud-based services, and business solutions, as well as voice, and other communication services and products; and satellite TV and connectivity services for residential, small and medium-sized business, government, and large enterprise customers. This segment also buys and sells local telephone, long distance, and data and other services from or to resellers and other carriers; and operates consumer electronics retail stores. The Bell Media segment provides conventional TV, specialty TV, pay TV, streaming services, digital media services, radio broadcasting services, and out-of-home advertising services. BCE Inc. was founded in 1880 and is headquartered in Verdun, Canada.