TELUS (NYSE:TU) and Vivendi (OTCMKTS:VIVHY) Financial Review

Vivendi (OTCMKTS:VIVHY) and TELUS (NYSE:TU) are both utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Vivendi and TELUS, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vivendi	0	0	1	0	3.00
TELUS	2	4	5	0	2.27

TELUS has a consensus target price of $16.33, suggesting a potential upside of 36.97%. Given TELUS’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe TELUS is more favorable than Vivendi.

Dividends

Vivendi pays an annual dividend of $0.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. TELUS pays an annual dividend of $1.21 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.1%. TELUS pays out 275.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. TELUS has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years. TELUS is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Volatility and Risk

Vivendi has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TELUS has a beta of 0.61, suggesting that its stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

49.4% of TELUS shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of TELUS shares are held by company 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 Vivendi and TELUS’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vivendi	N/A	N/A	N/A
TELUS	4.54%	8.29%	2.32%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Vivendi and TELUS”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vivendi	$347.26 million	7.02	$22.63 million	N/A	N/A
TELUS	$14.71 billion	1.28	$796.57 million	$0.44	27.10

TELUS has higher revenue and earnings than Vivendi.

Summary

TELUS beats Vivendi on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vivendi

Vivendi SE operates as an entertainment, media, and communication company in France, the rest of Europe, the Americas, Asia/Oceania, and Africa. It operates through Canal+ Group, Lagardère, Havas, Prisma Media, Gameloft, Vivendi Village, New Initiatives, and Generosity and Solidarity segments. The Canal+ Group segment publishes and distributes premium and thematic pay-TV and free-to-air channels; and produces, sells, and distributes movies and TV series. The Lagardère segment engages in the publishing, media, and travel retail activities. The Havas segment includes communications disciplines, such as creativity, media expertise, and healthcare/wellness. The Prisma Media segment publishes French magazines and online videos. The Gameloft segment engages in the creation and publishing of downloadable video games for various console-PC-mobile platforms, tablets, triple-play boxes, and smart TVs. The Vivendi Village segment provides ticketing services and live performances through Olympia production, festival production, and venues. The New Initiatives segment operates Dailymotion, a video content aggregation and distribution platform, as well as develops ultra-high-speed Internet service. The Generosity and Solidarity segment operates CanalOlympia; and Vivendi Foundation, a Create Joy solidarity program, which supports initial and professional training projects. The company was founded in 1853 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

About TELUS

TELUS Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of telecommunications and information technology products and services in Canada. It operates through Technology Solutions and Digitally-Led Customer Experiences segments. The Technology Solutions segment offers a range of telecommunications products and services; network services; healthcare services; mobile technologies equipment; data services, such as internet protocol; television; hosting, managed information technology, and cloud-based services; software, data management, and data analytics-driven smart food-chain and consumer goods technologies; home and business security; healthcare software and technology solutions; and voice and other telecommunications services, as well as mobile and fixed voice and data telecommunications services and products. The Digitally-Led Customer Experiences segment provides digital customer experience and digital-enablement transformation solutions, including artificial intelligence and content management solutions. The company was formerly known as TELUS Communications Inc. and changed its name to TELUS Corporation in February 2005. TELUS Corporation was incorporated in 1998 and is based in Vancouver, Canada.