Reviewing Nokia (NYSE:NOK) and ADTRAN (NASDAQ:ADTN)

ADTRAN (NASDAQ:ADTN) and Nokia (NYSE:NOK) are both technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Risk & Volatility

ADTRAN has a beta of 1.48, meaning that its stock price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nokia has a beta of 1.19, meaning that its stock price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares ADTRAN and Nokia’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ADTRAN	-2.29%	14.24%	1.66%
Nokia	3.49%	9.83%	5.53%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for ADTRAN and Nokia, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ADTRAN	2	1	4	0	2.29
Nokia	2	3	13	1	2.68

ADTRAN presently has a consensus price target of $14.67, indicating a potential upside of 106.43%. Nokia has a consensus price target of $14.12, indicating a potential upside of 37.97%. Given ADTRAN’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe ADTRAN is more favorable than Nokia.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares ADTRAN and Nokia”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ADTRAN	$1.08 billion	0.53	-$45.66 million	($0.28)	-25.38
Nokia	$22.50 billion	2.61	$736.54 million	$0.14	73.11

Nokia has higher revenue and earnings than ADTRAN. ADTRAN is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Nokia, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

80.6% of ADTRAN shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 5.3% of Nokia shares are held by institutional investors. 2.2% of ADTRAN shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Nokia beats ADTRAN on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ADTRAN

ADTRAN Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides networking and communications platforms, software, systems, and services in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Network Solutions, and Services & Support. It offers residential gateways; ethernet passive optical network ONUs; gigabit passive optical network/XGS-PON ONTs; traditional SSE, routers, and switches; edge cloud; carrier ethernet network interface devices; Optical Line Terminals; Packet Aggregation, Copper Access, and Oscilloquartz; optical transport and engine solutions; infrastructure monitoring solution; and training, professional, software, and managed services. The company also provides various software, such as Mosaic One SaaS, n-Command, Procloud, MCP, AOE and ACI-E, and Ensemble Controller. It serves large, medium, and small service providers; alternative service providers, such as utilities, municipalities and fiber overbuilders; cable/MSOs; and SMBs and distributed enterprises. ADTRAN Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama.

About Nokia

Nokia Oyj provides mobile, fixed, and cloud network solutions worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Network Infrastructure, Mobile Networks, Cloud and Network Services, and Nokia Technologies. The company provides fixed networking solutions, such as fiber and copper-based access infrastructure, in-home Wi-Fi solutions, and cloud and virtualization services; IP networking solutions, including IP access, aggregation, and edge and core routing for residential, mobile, enterprise and cloud applications; optical networks solutions that provides optical transport networks for metro, regional, and long-haul applications, and subsea applications; and submarine networks for undersea cable transmission. It serves its products and services to communications service providers, webscales and hyperscalers, digital industries, and government. The company also offers mobile technology products and services for radio access networks and microwave radio links for transport networks, network management solutions, as well as network planning, optimization, network deployment, and technical support services. In addition, it offers cloud and network services, including core network solutions, such as voice and packet core; business applications, such as security, automation, and monetization; cloud and cognitive services; and enterprise solutions, including private wireless and industrial automation. Further, the company licenses intellectual property, including patents, technologies, and the Nokia brand. Nokia Oyj was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in Espoo, Finland.