Contrasting Clear Channel Outdoor (NYSE:CCO) & USA Today (NYSE:TDAY)

Clear Channel Outdoor (NYSE:CCO) and USA Today (NYSE:TDAY) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

85.5% of Clear Channel Outdoor shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.7% of USA Today shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.7% of Clear Channel Outdoor shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.4% of USA Today shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Clear Channel Outdoor and USA Today, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Clear Channel Outdoor	2	5	0	0	1.71
USA Today	1	1	2	0	2.25

Clear Channel Outdoor presently has a consensus price target of $2.29, indicating a potential downside of 3.90%. USA Today has a consensus price target of $7.70, indicating a potential upside of 1.05%. Given USA Today’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe USA Today is more favorable than Clear Channel Outdoor.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Clear Channel Outdoor and USA Today”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Clear Channel Outdoor	$1.60 billion	0.74	$19.94 million	($0.18)	-13.25
USA Today	$2.30 billion	0.49	$1.75 million	$0.06	127.00

Clear Channel Outdoor has higher earnings, but lower revenue than USA Today. Clear Channel Outdoor is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than USA Today, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Clear Channel Outdoor and USA Today’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Clear Channel Outdoor	-5.55%	N/A	-2.41%
USA Today	1.27%	21.75%	2.09%

Volatility and Risk

Clear Channel Outdoor has a beta of 1.99, indicating that its share price is 99% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, USA Today has a beta of 1.42, indicating that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

USA Today beats Clear Channel Outdoor on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Clear Channel Outdoor

Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. operates as an out-of-home advertising company in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It operates through America, Airports, Europe-North, and Other segments. The company provides advertising services through billboards, including bulletins and posters, as well as spectaculars, which are customized display structures with videos, multi-dimensional lettering and figures, mechanical devices, moving parts, and other embellishments; street furniture displays, such as advertising surfaces on bus shelters, information kiosks, news racks, and other public structures; transit displays for rail stations and on various types of vehicles; retail displays; and airport advertising displays. It offers solutions, such as RADARView, an audience and campaign planning tool, which analyzes historical mobile location data; RADARConnect, a campaign amplification solution that delivers ads across mobile and other devices to re-target audience groups exposed to an out-of-home advertisement; RADARProof, a campaign measurement and attribution solutions which analyzes anonymized and/or aggregated data; and RADARSync, a data integration platform that uses customer data across the tools for customized application of solutions to customers' specific audience targets and goals. In addition, the company sells street furniture equipment; provides cleaning and maintenance services; and operates public bike programs, a public bicycle rental program that offers bicycles for rent to the public. The company was formerly known as Eller Media Company and changed its name to Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. in August 2005. Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.

About USA Today

Gannett Co Inc. invests in, owns, and operates local media assets in the United States. The company’s principal products include 125 daily newspapers with total paid circulation of approximately 1.4 million; 314 weekly newspapers with total paid circulation of approximately 315,000 and total free circulation of approximately 1.9 million; 124 shoppers with total circulation of approximately 3.0 million; and 538 locally-focused Websites, including Internet and mobile devices with approximately 224 million page views per month. Its principal products also comprise 2 yellow page directories with a total distribution of approximately 230,000 that cover a population of approximately 411,000 people; 68 business publications; and Propel digital marketing and business services. In addition, the company produces niche publications that address specific local market interests, such as recreation, sports, healthcare, and real estate. Further, it provides print and online products that offer local market news and information on various topics comprising local news and politics, community and regional events, youth sports, opinion and editorial pages, local schools, obituaries, weddings, and police reports, as well as print and digital advertising products, as well as commercial printing and regional business-oriented publications services. The company reaches approximately 20 million people per week; and serves approximately 220,000 business customers. New Media Investment Group Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in New York, New York.