Rogers Communication (NYSE:RCI) vs. Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN) Head to Head Comparison

Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN) and Rogers Communication (NYSE:RCI) are both communication services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Lumen Technologies and Rogers Communication, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lumen Technologies	1	10	0	0	1.91
Rogers Communication	1	2	6	0	2.56

Lumen Technologies currently has a consensus target price of $7.38, indicating a potential upside of 51.13%. Rogers Communication has a consensus target price of $35.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.53%. Given Lumen Technologies’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Lumen Technologies is more favorable than Rogers Communication.

Risk and Volatility

Lumen Technologies has a beta of 1.84, suggesting that its share price is 84% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Rogers Communication has a beta of 0.65, suggesting that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Lumen Technologies and Rogers Communication”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lumen Technologies	$11.83 billion	0.43	-$1.74 billion	($1.02)	-4.78
Rogers Communication	$15.54 billion	1.13	$4.93 billion	$1.20	27.12

Rogers Communication has higher revenue and earnings than Lumen Technologies. Lumen Technologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Rogers Communication, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Lumen Technologies pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 20.5%. Rogers Communication pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Lumen Technologies pays out -98.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Rogers Communication pays out 120.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Lumen Technologies is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Lumen Technologies and Rogers Communication’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lumen Technologies	-8.65%	N/A	-1.56%
Rogers Communication	4.11%	11.51%	2.99%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

66.2% of Lumen Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.5% of Rogers Communication shares are held by institutional investors. 2.3% of Lumen Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 29.0% of Rogers Communication shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Rogers Communication beats Lumen Technologies on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lumen Technologies

Lumen Technologies, Inc., a facilities-based technology and communications company, provides various integrated products and services to business and residential customers in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Business and Mass Markets. It offers dark fiber, edge cloud services, internet protocol, managed security, software-defined wide area networks, secure access service edge, unified communications and collaboration, and optical wavelengths services; ethernet and VPN data networks services; and legacy services to manage cash flow, including time division multiplexing voice, private line, and other legacy services, as well as sells communication equipment, and IT solutions. The company also provides high speed and lower speed broadband service to residential and small business customers; local and long-distance voice services, professional services, and other ancillary services; and federal broadband and state support programs. It serves its products and services under the Lumen, Quantum Fiber, and CenturyLink brands. The company was formerly known as CenturyLink, Inc. and changed its name to Lumen Technologies, Inc. in September 2020. Lumen Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana.

About Rogers Communication

Rogers Communications Inc. operates as a communications and media company in Canada. It operates through three segments: Wireless, Cable, and Media. The company offers mobile Internet access, wireless voice and enhanced voice, device financing, device protection, global voice and data roaming, wireless home phone, bridging landline, machine-to-machine and Internet of Things solutions, and advanced wireless solutions for businesses, as well as device shipping and express pickup services; and postpaid and prepaid services under the Rogers, Fido, and chatr brands. It also provides internet and WiFi services; and monitoring, security, automation, energy efficiency, and smart control through smartphone app. In addition, the company offers local and network TV; on-demand television; cloud-based digital video recorders; voice-activated remote controls, and integrated apps; personal video recorders; linear and time-shifted programming; digital specialty channels; and 4K television programming. Further, it provides residential and small business local telephony services; voicemail, call waiting, and long distance; voice, data networking, Internet protocol (IP), and Ethernet services; private networking, Internet, IP voice, and cloud solutions; optical wave and multi-protocol label switching services; information technology and network technologies; cable access network services; telecommunications technical consulting services; and season games through television, smartphones, tablets, personal computers, and other streaming devices, as well as operates Ignite TV and Ignite TV app. Additionally, the company owns Toronto Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre event venue; and operates Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet World, Citytv, OMNI, FX (Canada), FXX (Canada), and OLN television networks, as well as 52 AM and FM radio stations. It also offers Rogers and the Rogers World Elite Mastercard. The company was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.