Financial Contrast: ERF Wireless (OTCMKTS:ERFB) and Ribbon Communications (NASDAQ:RBBN)

ERF Wireless (OTCMKTS:ERFB) and Ribbon Communications (NASDAQ:RBBN) are both technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and institutional ownership.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares ERF Wireless and Ribbon Communications”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ERF Wireless	N/A	N/A	N/A	($1.83)	N/A
Ribbon Communications	$844.56 million	0.43	$39.64 million	$0.08	25.37

Ribbon Communications has higher revenue and earnings than ERF Wireless. ERF Wireless is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ribbon Communications, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares ERF Wireless and Ribbon Communications’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ERF Wireless	N/A	N/A	N/A
Ribbon Communications	1.96%	19.91%	6.98%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.1% of ERF Wireless shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.9% of Ribbon Communications shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.8% of ERF Wireless shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of Ribbon Communications shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for ERF Wireless and Ribbon Communications, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ERF Wireless	0	0	0	0	0.00
Ribbon Communications	1	0	5	0	2.67

Ribbon Communications has a consensus target price of $3.52, suggesting a potential upside of 73.23%. Given Ribbon Communications’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Ribbon Communications is more favorable than ERF Wireless.

Summary

Ribbon Communications beats ERF Wireless on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ERF Wireless

ERF Wireless, Inc. provides wireless broadband access solutions for the energy industry in North America. The company conducts its operations through Energy Broadband, Inc., Wireless Bundled Services Division, and Enterprise Network Services segments. It offers wireless bandwidth and related support services, including nomadic terrestrial wireless broadband circuit connectivity to the wellsite; wellsite communications equipment rental; wellsite IT support services; wellsite IT services over broadband; network monitoring and maintenance:; layer 2 secure communications connectivity products rental and services; fixed site terrestrial wireless broadband connectivity; network design and construction; production field supervisory control and data acquisition; and midstream communications, monitoring, and security solutions for the oil and gas industry. The company also provides enterprise-level wireless bandwidth product and services, such as design and implementation of custom Internet wireless bandwidth solutions, including long-term maintenance and network monitoring; reselling arrangements; and secure connectivity services through its CryptoVue product to the regional banking, healthcare, and educational sectors primarily in the rural areas of North America. In addition, it offers commercial and residential wireless bandwidth products and services comprising -speed Internet, voice over Internet protocol services, network monitoring and maintenance services, and video services to commercial businesses and residential customers. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in League City, Texas.

About Ribbon Communications

Ribbon Communications Inc. provides communications technology in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Cloud and Edge, and IP Optical Networks. The Cloud and Edge segment provides software and hardware products, solutions, and services for voice over internet protocol communications, voice over long-term evolution, and voice over 5G communications, and unified communications and collaboration. It also offers session border controllers; and network transformation products, such as signaling products, call controllers, media gateways, and application servers. This segment serves private, public, or hybrid cloud infrastructures, as well as data centers, enterprise premises, and service provider networks. The IP Optical Networks segment provides hardware and software products and solutions for IP networking, switching, routing, and optical transport for technologies, such as 5G, distributed cloud computing, and corresponding applications. It also offers multiple solutions, including 5G-native solutions for mobile-backhaul, metro and edge aggregation, core networking, data center interconnect, multi-service access, and transport solutions for wholesale carriers. This segment serves utilities, government, defense, finance, transportation, and education and research industries, as well as service providers and enterprises. The company was formerly known as Sonus Networks, Inc. and changed its name to Ribbon Communications Inc. in November 2017. Ribbon Communications Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Plano, Texas.