Contrasting MTN Group (OTCMKTS:MTNOY) and Tele2 (OTCMKTS:TLTZY)

MTN Group (OTCMKTS:MTNOY) and Tele2 (OTCMKTS:TLTZY) are both large-cap communication services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, risk, earnings, valuation and institutional ownership.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares MTN Group and Tele2″s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MTN Group	$12.69 billion	1.83	$1.13 billion	N/A	N/A
Tele2	$3.06 billion	3.89	$468.79 million	$0.78	11.10

MTN Group has higher revenue and earnings than Tele2.

Dividends

MTN Group pays an annual dividend of $0.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Tele2 pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Tele2 pays out 35.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Volatility and Risk

MTN Group has a beta of 1.15, suggesting that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Tele2 has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares MTN Group and Tele2’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MTN Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
Tele2	33.96%	43.42%	15.54%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for MTN Group and Tele2, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MTN Group	1	0	1	0	2.00
Tele2	0	3	3	1	2.71

Summary

Tele2 beats MTN Group on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MTN Group

MTN Group Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides mobile telecommunications services in South Africa, Nigeria, East Africa, West and Central Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa. The company offers data, voice and SMS, digital and fintech, interconnect, and roaming services, as well as sells mobile devices. It also provides network as a service, including subsea cables that offers international connectivity services; terrestrial and metro fiber networks; data centers and cable landing stations; and FTTx, towers, and radio access networks. The company also offers digital financial services, such as access payments, e-commerce, insurance, and lending and remittance services; enterprise services comprising manage networks, unified and cloud communication, security as a service, and Internet of Things; and API products and services for telecommunications, health, government, financial services, entertainment, and other sectors. MTN Group Limited was incorporated in 1994 and is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

About Tele2

Tele2 AB (publ) provides fixed and mobile connectivity, handset related data services, and entertainment services in Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The company offers mobile telephony and data, fixed broadband, fixed telephony, switch and contact center, cloud services, IT services, network services, workplace, video and collaboration, united communications, and security services. The company also provides data network services, including dark fiber, dedicated wavelength, ethernet and IP VPN, and internet services; and unified communications comprising service provider, mobile virtual network operator, and carrier SIP-interconnect services. In addition, it offers single and dual IMSI solutions for consumer and IoT applications; on-demand roaming services, such as subscription management, data plan management, real time charging, eSIM delivery, SIM management, and set up services; routing and termination solutions for international voice traffic; application-2-person messaging services; and value-added services comprising shortcodes and long numbers for businesses to have 2-way communication with their customers. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Kista, Sweden.