Reviewing Liberty Global (LBTYB) & Its Competitors

Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYB) is one of 259 publicly-traded companies in the “Media” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Liberty Global to similar businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, earnings, profitability and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Liberty Global and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Liberty Global	1	0	0	0	1.00
Liberty Global Competitors	2260	6878	10836	476	2.47

As a group, “Media” companies have a potential upside of 24.19%. Given Liberty Global’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Liberty Global has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Volatility and Risk

Liberty Global has a beta of 0.42, suggesting that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Liberty Global’s competitors have a beta of 0.96, suggesting that their average share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Liberty Global and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Liberty Global	$4.88 billion	-$7.14 billion	-1.41
Liberty Global Competitors	$3.01 billion	-$7.90 million	15.58

Liberty Global has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its competitors. Liberty Global is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.5% of Liberty Global shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 38.8% of shares of all “Media” companies are held by institutional investors. 6.5% of Liberty Global shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.5% of shares of all “Media” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Liberty Global and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Liberty Global	-62.11%	-28.82%	-13.28%
Liberty Global Competitors	-20.09%	-47.76%	-5.10%

Summary

Liberty Global competitors beat Liberty Global on 11 of the 13 factors compared.

Liberty Global Company Profile

Liberty Global Plc is an international television and broadband company, which engages in the provision of broadband communications services. It operates through the following geographical segments: U.K. and Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Central and Eastern Europe, and Central and Corporate. Its products include broadband, WiFi, connectivity products, TV platforms, and TV content. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.