Spok (NASDAQ:SPOK – Get Free Report) and Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LILAK – Get Free Report) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends and institutional ownership.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Spok and Liberty Global, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Spok | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4.00 |
| Liberty Global | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2.00 |
Spok currently has a consensus target price of $20.00, indicating a potential upside of 14.68%. Liberty Global has a consensus target price of $7.85, indicating a potential downside of 3.92%. Given Spok’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Spok is more favorable than Liberty Global.
Profitability
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Spok | 12.12% | 11.11% | 8.05% |
| Liberty Global | -26.61% | -71.58% | -9.23% |
Risk & Volatility
Spok has a beta of 0.55, meaning that its share price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Liberty Global has a beta of 1.02, meaning that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
50.8% of Spok shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.0% of Liberty Global shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.4% of Spok shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.7% of Liberty Global shares are owned by company 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.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Spok and Liberty Global”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Spok | $137.65 million | 2.61 | $14.97 million | $0.83 | 21.01 |
| Liberty Global | $4.46 billion | 0.37 | -$657.00 million | ($5.93) | -1.38 |
Spok has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Liberty Global. Liberty Global is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Spok, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Spok beats Liberty Global on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Spok
Spok Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, Spok, Inc., provides healthcare communication solutions in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East. The company's products and services enhance workflows for clinicians and support administrative compliance. It delivers clinical information to care teams when and where it matters to enhance patient outcomes; and provides GenA Pager, a one-way alphanumeric pager. The company offers subscriptions to one-way or two-way messaging services, as well as alphanumeric pagers that are configurable to support unencrypted or encrypted operation; and ancillary services, such as voicemail, and equipment loss or maintenance protection services, as well as sells devices to resellers who lease or resell them to their subscribers. Its Spok Care Connect suite products for contact centers, clinical alerting and notification, mobile communications and messaging, and public safety notifications. In addition, the company provides professional, software license updates, and product support services, as well as sells third-party equipment. It serves businesses, professionals, management personnel, medical personnel, field sales personnel and service forces, members of the construction industry and construction trades, real estate brokers and developers, sales and services organizations, specialty trade organizations, manufacturing organizations, and government agencies. The company was formerly known as USA Mobility, Inc. and changed its name to Spok Holdings, Inc. in July 2014. Spok Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.
About Liberty Global
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.
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