Analyzing MTN Group (OTCMKTS:MTNOY) and SurgePays (NASDAQ:SURG)

MTN Group (OTCMKTS:MTNOY) and SurgePays (NASDAQ:SURG) are both communication services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for MTN Group and SurgePays, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MTN Group	1	0	1	0	2.00
SurgePays	1	1	1	0	2.00

SurgePays has a consensus price target of $3.50, indicating a potential upside of 1,128.07%. Given SurgePays’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe SurgePays is more favorable than MTN Group.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares MTN Group and SurgePays”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MTN Group	$12.69 billion	1.69	$1.13 billion	N/A	N/A
SurgePays	$56.96 million	0.13	-$36.07 million	($1.53)	-0.19

MTN Group has higher revenue and earnings than SurgePays.

Profitability

This table compares MTN Group and SurgePays’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MTN Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
SurgePays	-47.89%	N/A	-264.24%

Risk and Volatility

MTN Group has a beta of 1.17, suggesting that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SurgePays has a beta of 0.42, suggesting that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

6.9% of SurgePays shares are owned by institutional investors. 29.1% of SurgePays shares are owned by 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.

Summary

MTN Group beats SurgePays on 6 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MTN Group

MTN Group Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides mobile telecommunications services in South Africa, Nigeria, East Africa, West and Central Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa. The company offers data, voice and SMS, digital and fintech, interconnect, and roaming services, as well as sells mobile devices. It also provides network as a service, including subsea cables that offers international connectivity services; terrestrial and metro fiber networks; data centers and cable landing stations; and FTTx, towers, and radio access networks. The company also offers digital financial services, such as access payments, e-commerce, insurance, and lending and remittance services; enterprise services comprising manage networks, unified and cloud communication, security as a service, and Internet of Things; and API products and services for telecommunications, health, government, financial services, entertainment, and other sectors. MTN Group Limited was incorporated in 1994 and is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

About SurgePays

SurgePays, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a financial technology and telecom company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Mobile Virtual Network Operators, Comprehensive Platform Services, and Lead Generation. The company offers subsidized and non-subsidized mobile virtual network operators for internet connectivity through mobile broadband services to consumers; ACH banking relationships and fintech transactions platform to convenience stores; wireless top-up transactions and wireless product aggregation; and lead generation and case management solutions primarily to law firms in the mass tort industry, as well as call center activities. SurgePays, Inc. is headquartered in Bartlett, Tennessee.