Financial Review: Saga Communications (SGA) vs. Its Peers

Saga Communications (NASDAQ:SGA) is one of 257 public companies in the “Media” industry, but how does it compare to its rivals? We will compare Saga Communications to similar businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, risk and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Saga Communications and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Saga Communications	1	2	0	0	1.67
Saga Communications Competitors	2328	6916	10768	490	2.46

As a group, “Media” companies have a potential upside of 28.67%. Given Saga Communications’ rivals stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Saga Communications has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Profitability

This table compares Saga Communications and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Saga Communications	-8.55%	3.87%	2.90%
Saga Communications Competitors	-18.35%	-47.68%	-4.81%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Saga Communications and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Saga Communications	$107.11 million	-$7.90 million	-5.57
Saga Communications Competitors	$2.97 billion	$35.12 million	-0.10

Saga Communications’ rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Saga Communications. Saga Communications is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Saga Communications pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.0%. Saga Communications pays out -72.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Media” companies pay a dividend yield of 5.3% and pay out 98.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Saga Communications is clearly a better dividend stock than its rivals, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

Saga Communications has a beta of -0.12, indicating that its stock price is 112% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Saga Communications’ rivals have a beta of 0.96, indicating that their average stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

74.3% of Saga Communications shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 37.7% of shares of all “Media” companies are owned by institutional investors. 23.2% of Saga Communications shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 17.6% of shares of all “Media” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Saga Communications rivals beat Saga Communications on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Saga Communications

Saga Communications, Inc., a media company, engages in acquiring, developing, and operating broadcast properties in the United States. The company's radio stations employ various programming formats, including classic hits, country, classic country, hot/soft/urban adult contemporary, oldies, classic rock, rock, and news/talk. It owns and operates FM and AM radio stations, and metro signals serving various markets. Saga Communications, Inc. was incorporated in 1986 and is headquartered in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan.