Echostar (NASDAQ:ECHO) vs. Saga Communications (NASDAQ:SGA) Head-To-Head Comparison

Echostar (NASDAQ:ECHO) and Saga Communications (NASDAQ:SGA) are both communication services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Echostar and Saga Communications, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Echostar	1	2	5	1	2.67
Saga Communications	1	2	0	0	1.67

Echostar presently has a consensus target price of $132.00, indicating a potential upside of 46.99%. Given Echostar’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Echostar is more favorable than Saga Communications.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

33.6% of Echostar shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.3% of Saga Communications shares are held by institutional investors. 55.7% of Echostar shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 23.2% of Saga Communications shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Echostar has a beta of 1, indicating that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Saga Communications has a beta of -0.11, indicating that its stock price is 111% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Echostar and Saga Communications”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Echostar	$15.00 billion	1.74	-$14.50 billion	($24.92)	-3.60
Saga Communications	$107.11 million	0.55	-$7.90 million	($1.38)	-6.65

Saga Communications has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Echostar. Saga Communications is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Echostar, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Echostar	-38.71%	-1.28%	-0.25%
Saga Communications	-8.55%	3.87%	2.90%

Summary

Echostar beats Saga Communications on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Echostar

EchoStar Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides networking technologies and services worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Hughes and EchoStar Satellite Services (ESS). The Hughes segment offers broadband network technologies, managed services, equipment, hardware, satellite services, and communications solutions to government and enterprise customers. The segment also designs, provides, and installs gateway and terminal equipment to customers for other satellite systems. In addition, it designs, develops, constructs, and provides telecommunication networks comprising satellite ground segment systems and terminals to mobile system operators and enterprise customers. Further, this segment designs, provides, and installs gateway and terminal equipment to customers for other satellite systems, as well as offers satellite ground segment systems and terminals for other satellite systems, including mobile system operators. The ESS segment provides satellite services using its owned and leased in-orbit satellites and related licenses to offer satellite services on a full-time and/or occasional-use basis to the U.S. government service providers, internet service providers, broadcast news organizations, content providers, and private enterprise customers. It serves customers in North America, South and Central America, Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, India, and the Middle East. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado.

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.