Financial Survey: Perion Network (NASDAQ:PERI) and Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA)

Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA) and Perion Network (NASDAQ:PERI) are both communication services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

Liberty Global has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Perion Network has a beta of 1.17, suggesting that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Liberty Global and Perion Network’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Liberty Global	-62.12%	-28.83%	-13.28%
Perion Network	-2.95%	2.43%	1.81%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

37.2% of Liberty Global shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.1% of Perion Network shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.3% of Liberty Global shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of Perion Network shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Liberty Global and Perion Network, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Liberty Global	1	4	1	0	2.00
Perion Network	1	1	4	0	2.50

Liberty Global currently has a consensus target price of $13.22, suggesting a potential upside of 27.16%. Perion Network has a consensus target price of $13.88, suggesting a potential upside of 59.30%. Given Perion Network’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Perion Network is more favorable than Liberty Global.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Liberty Global and Perion Network”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Liberty Global	$4.88 billion	0.73	-$7.14 billion	($8.98)	-1.16
Perion Network	$439.93 million	0.77	-$7.93 million	($0.35)	-24.89

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

Summary

Perion Network beats Liberty Global on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Liberty Global

Liberty Global Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides broadband internet, video, fixed-line telephony, and mobile communications services to residential and business customers. It offers value-added broadband services, such as WiFi features, security, anti-virus, firewall, spam protection, smart home services, online storage solutions, and web spaces; and Connect Box that delivers in-home Wi-Fi service. The company provides various tiers of digital video programming and audio services, as well as digital video recorders and multimedia home gateway systems; Horizon 5, a cloud-based, multi-screen entertainment platform that combines linear television, including recording and replay features and video-on-demand services; Horizon Go, an online mobile app; and channels, including general entertainment, sports, movies, series, documentaries, lifestyles, news, adult, children, and ethnic and foreign channels. In addition, it offers postpaid and prepaid mobile services; circuit-switched telephony services; and personal call manager, unified messaging, and a second or third phone line at an incremental cost. Further, the company offers business services comprising voice, advanced data, video, wireless, cloud-based services, and mobile and converged fixed-mobile services to small or home offices, small businesses, and medium and large enterprises, as well as on a wholesale basis to other operators. It operates in Belgium, Switzerland, Ireland, Slovakia, and internationally. Liberty Global Ltd. was founded in 2004 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

About Perion Network

Perion Network Ltd. provides digital advertising solutions to brands, agencies, and publishers in North America, Europe, and internationally. It offers Wildfire, a content monetization platform; search monetization solutions, including website monetization, search mediation, and app monetization; and cross-channel digital advertising software as a service platform. The company also provides supply management platform; demand management platform for campaign planning and design; analytics platform, which provides information and performance insights; creative platform, a robust media platform; and an AI platform that uses machine learning to bring intelligence to the various phases of campaigns. In addition, it offers an actionable performance monitoring platform to support the various phases of campaign management; an online video player and integrated ad server to upload, manage, and stream video content; content monetization system, which integrates ads within the content layouts at the page level. Further, the company provides a publisher management system that provides analytics and performance optimization tools, as well as reports; search-demand management systems; monetization products that integrate and onboards demand vendors; and AI Systems. Additionally, it offers Intelligent HUB (iHUB), which connects the supply and demand sides of the marketplace; and strategic optimization of relevant traits (SORT), a provisional patent technology that eliminates the need for cookies. The company was formerly known as IncrediMail Ltd. and changed its name to Perion Network Ltd. in November 2011. Perion Network Ltd. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Holon, Israel.