Head to Head Survey: Liberty Latin America (NASDAQ:LILA) & Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT)

Liberty Latin America (NASDAQ:LILA) and Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) are both communication services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk and profitability.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Liberty Latin America and Uniti Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Liberty Latin America	$4.44 billion	0.38	-$611.20 million	($0.49)	-17.39
Uniti Group	$2.23 billion	1.10	$1.30 billion	$2.71	3.75

Uniti Group has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Liberty Latin America. Liberty Latin America is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Uniti Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Liberty Latin America and Uniti Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Liberty Latin America	2	1	1	0	1.75
Uniti Group	0	7	1	1	2.33

Liberty Latin America presently has a consensus price target of $10.00, suggesting a potential upside of 17.37%. Uniti Group has a consensus price target of $10.92, suggesting a potential upside of 7.34%. Given Liberty Latin America’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Liberty Latin America is more favorable than Uniti Group.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

18.5% of Liberty Latin America shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.5% of Uniti Group shares are held by institutional investors. 6.2% of Liberty Latin America shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Uniti Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Liberty Latin America has a beta of 0.74, suggesting that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Uniti Group has a beta of 1.39, suggesting that its stock price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Liberty Latin America and Uniti Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Liberty Latin America	-2.20%	-9.29%	-0.81%
Uniti Group	28.68%	-133.07%	-4.09%

Summary

Uniti Group beats Liberty Latin America on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Liberty Latin America

Liberty Latin America Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides fixed, mobile, and subsea telecommunications services. The company operates through C&W Caribbean, C&W Panama, Liberty Networks, Liberty Puerto Rico, and Liberty Costa Rico segments. It offers communications and entertainment services, including video, broadband internet, fixed-line, telephony, and mobiles services to residential and business customers; and business products and services that include enterprise-grade connectivity, data center, hosting, and managed solutions, as well as information technology solutions for small and medium enterprises, international companies, and governmental agencies. The company also operates a sub-sea and terrestrial fiber optic cable network that connects approximately 40 markets. It provides its services under the brands of C&W, Liberty Costa Rica, Liberty Communications, BTC, Flow, and Mas Móvil. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

About Uniti Group

Uniti Group, Inc. is a real estate investment trust company, which engages in the acquisition, construction, and leasing of properties. It operates through the following business segments: Uniti Leasing, Uniti Fiber, and Corporate. The Uniti Leasing segment involves mission-critical communications assets on exclusive or shared-tenant basis, and dark fiber network. The Uniti Fiber segment includes the operation of infrastructure solutions, cell site backhauls, and dark fiber. The Corporate segment consists of office and shared service functions. The company was founded in February 2014 and is headquartered in Little Rock, AR.