Contrasting Adeia (NASDAQ:ADEA) and Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA)

Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA) and Adeia (NASDAQ:ADEA) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Liberty Global and Adeia, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Liberty Global	0	5	3	0	2.38
Adeia	0	0	2	0	3.00

Liberty Global currently has a consensus target price of $21.76, suggesting a potential upside of 55.52%. Adeia has a consensus target price of $15.50, suggesting a potential upside of 28.74%. Given Liberty Global’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Liberty Global is more favorable than Adeia.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

37.2% of Liberty Global shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.4% of Adeia shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.5% of Liberty Global shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Adeia shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Liberty Global and Adeia’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Liberty Global	-54.02%	-22.30%	-10.03%
Adeia	12.01%	28.37%	9.44%

Volatility & Risk

Liberty Global has a beta of 1.18, indicating that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Adeia has a beta of 1.44, indicating that its stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Liberty Global and Adeia”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Liberty Global	$7.49 billion	0.67	-$4.05 billion	($10.15)	-1.38
Adeia	$388.79 million	3.38	$67.37 million	$0.36	33.44

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

Summary

Adeia beats Liberty Global on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Liberty Global

Liberty Global Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides broadband internet, video, fixed-line telephony, and mobile communications services to residential and business customers. It offers value-added broadband services, such as WiFi features, security, anti-virus, firewall, spam protection, smart home services, online storage solutions, and web spaces; and Connect Box that delivers in-home Wi-Fi service. The company provides various tiers of digital video programming and audio services, as well as digital video recorders and multimedia home gateway systems; Horizon 5, a cloud-based, multi-screen entertainment platform that combines linear television, including recording and replay features and video-on-demand services; Horizon Go, an online mobile app; and channels, including general entertainment, sports, movies, series, documentaries, lifestyles, news, adult, children, and ethnic and foreign channels. In addition, it offers postpaid and prepaid mobile services; circuit-switched telephony services; and personal call manager, unified messaging, and a second or third phone line at an incremental cost. Further, the company offers business services comprising voice, advanced data, video, wireless, cloud-based services, and mobile and converged fixed-mobile services to small or home offices, small businesses, and medium and large enterprises, as well as on a wholesale basis to other operators. It operates in Belgium, Switzerland, Ireland, Slovakia, and internationally. Liberty Global Ltd. was founded in 2004 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

About Adeia

Adeia Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a media and semiconductor intellectual property licensing company in the United States, Canada, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and internationally. The company licenses its patent portfolios across various markets, including multichannel video programming distributors comprising cable, satellite, and telecommunications television providers that aggregate and distribute linear content over networks, as well as television providers that aggregate and stream linear content over broadband networks; over-the-top video service providers and social media companies, such as subscription video-on-demand and advertising-supported streaming service providers, as well as content providers, networks, and media companies. It also licenses consumer electronics manufacturers, which includes producers of smart televisions, streaming media devices, video game consoles, mobile devices, content storage devices, and other connected media devices; semiconductors, including providers of sensors, radio frequency components, memory, and logic devices; and social media companies that allow users to stream and upload user-generated content. The company licenses its innovations under the Adeia brand name. Adeia Inc. was formerly known as Xperi Corporation and changed its name to Adeia Inc. in December 2019. The company was incorporated in 2019 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.