Critical Contrast: United Internet (UDIRF) versus Its Peers

United Internet (OTCMKTS:UDIRF) is one of 71 publicly-traded companies in the “INTERNET SERVICES” industry, but how does it compare to its rivals? We will compare United Internet to similar businesses based on the strength of its earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership and valuation.

Risk & Volatility

United Internet has a beta of 0.51, suggesting that its stock price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Internet’s rivals have a beta of 2.60, suggesting that their average stock price is 160% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

42.1% of shares of all “INTERNET SERVICES” companies are held by institutional investors. 23.3% of shares of all “INTERNET SERVICES” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for United Internet and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United Internet	1	0	0	0	1.00
United Internet Competitors	564	2449	5664	221	2.62

As a group, “INTERNET SERVICES” companies have a potential upside of 14.19%. Given United Internet’s rivals stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe United Internet has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares United Internet and its rivals revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
United Internet	$6.85 billion	$114.57 million	-80.40
United Internet Competitors	$19.41 billion	$4.48 billion	12.91

United Internet’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than United Internet. United Internet 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.

Profitability

This table compares United Internet and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United Internet	-0.82%	-0.94%	-0.44%
United Internet Competitors	-16.77%	-17.48%	0.69%

Summary

United Internet rivals beat United Internet on 11 of the 13 factors compared.

United Internet Company Profile

United Internet AG, through its subsidiaries, operates as an Internet service provider worldwide. The company operates through Consumer Access, Business Access, Consumer Applications, and Business Applications segments. It offers landline-based broadband and mobile internet products, including home networks, online storage, telephony, and IPTV for private users; and telecommunication products ranging from fiber-optic direct connections to tailored ICT solutions, which include voice, data, and network solutions, as well as infrastructure services to national and international carriers and ISPs. The company also provides applications and services for home users, such as personal information management applications comprising email, to-do lists, appointments, and addresses; and online cloud storage, as well as domains and website solutions. In addition, it provides business applications for freelancers and small to medium enterprises, such as domains, websites, web hosting, servers, cloud solutions, e-shops, group work, online cloud storage, and office software. It offers its access products through the yourfone, smartmobile.de, 1&1, and 1&1 Versatel brands; and applications through GMX, mail.com, WEB.DE, home.pl, Arsys, STRATO, IONOS, Fasthosts, we22, InterNetX, united-domains, and World4You brand names. In addition, the company offers customers professional services in the fields of active domain management; performance-based advertising and sales services under the Sedo brand name; online advertising services under the United Internet Media brand name; and white-label website builder services under the we22 brand, as well as sells IT hardware. The company was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Montabaur, Germany.