Financial Contrast: Millicom International Cellular (TIGO) & Its Competitors

Millicom International Cellular (NASDAQ:TIGO) is one of 203 publicly-traded companies in the “Diversified Telecommunication Services” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Millicom International Cellular to similar businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, earnings, profitability and risk.

Volatility and Risk

Millicom International Cellular has a beta of 1, indicating that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Millicom International Cellular’s competitors have a beta of -4.89, indicating that their average stock price is 589% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

32.8% of shares of all “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 18.9% of shares of all “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Millicom International Cellular pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Millicom International Cellular pays out 88.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 13.7% and pay out 33.2% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Millicom International Cellular lags its competitors as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Millicom International Cellular and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Millicom International Cellular	1	3	3	0	2.29
Millicom International Cellular Competitors	1756	5353	7765	384	2.44

Millicom International Cellular currently has a consensus target price of $85.68, suggesting a potential upside of 2.94%. As a group, “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies have a potential upside of 23.55%. Given Millicom International Cellular’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Millicom International Cellular has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares Millicom International Cellular and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Millicom International Cellular	7.02%	20.03%	3.17%
Millicom International Cellular Competitors	-10.44%	-217.65%	-3.39%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Millicom International Cellular and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Millicom International Cellular	$5.82 billion	$1.32 billion	24.63
Millicom International Cellular Competitors	$106.19 billion	$893.66 million	-167.34

Millicom International Cellular’s competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Millicom International Cellular. Millicom International Cellular is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Millicom International Cellular competitors beat Millicom International Cellular on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About Millicom International Cellular

Millicom International Cellular S.A. provides cable and mobile services in Latin America. It offers mobile services, including mobile data and voice, and short message services; and mobile financial services, such as payments, money transfers, international remittances, savings, real-time loans, and micro-insurance. The company also operates TIGO Sports for local entertainment; Tigo Money that allows its customers to send and receive money without the need for a bank account; and TIGO ONEtv for pay TV. In addition, it provides fixed services, including broadband and fixed voice; and fixed-voice and data telecommunications services, managed services, cloud and security solutions, and value-added services; and tower infrastructure and services. The company serves small, medium, and large businesses, as well as residential consumers and governmental entities. It markets its products and services under the Tigo and Tigo Business brands. The company was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Luxembourg.