Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN) and SurgePays (NASDAQ:SURG) Critical Analysis

SurgePays (NASDAQ:SURG) and Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and earnings.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

6.9% of SurgePays shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.2% of Lumen Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 29.4% of SurgePays shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Lumen Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

SurgePays has a beta of 0.94, meaning that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lumen Technologies has a beta of 1.21, meaning that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for SurgePays and Lumen Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SurgePays	0	1	1	0	2.50
Lumen Technologies	3	5	0	0	1.63

SurgePays presently has a consensus target price of $9.00, indicating a potential upside of 414.29%. Lumen Technologies has a consensus target price of $4.02, indicating a potential downside of 48.97%. Given SurgePays’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe SurgePays is more favorable than Lumen Technologies.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares SurgePays and Lumen Technologies”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SurgePays	$137.14 million	0.26	$20.62 million	($1.13)	-1.55
Lumen Technologies	$14.56 billion	0.55	-$10.30 billion	($2.17)	-3.63

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

Profitability

This table compares SurgePays and Lumen Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SurgePays	-27.39%	-55.63%	-43.61%
Lumen Technologies	-16.06%	-49.74%	-0.64%

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.

About Lumen Technologies

Lumen Technologies, Inc., a facilities-based technology and communications company, provides various integrated products and services to business and residential customers in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Business and Mass Markets. It offers dark fiber, edge cloud services, internet protocol, managed security, software-defined wide area networks, secure access service edge, unified communications and collaboration, and optical wavelengths services; ethernet and VPN data networks services; and legacy services to manage cash flow, including time division multiplexing voice, private line, and other legacy services, as well as sells communication equipment, and IT solutions. The company also provides high speed and lower speed broadband service to residential and small business customers; local and long-distance voice services, professional services, and other ancillary services; and federal broadband and state support programs. It serves its products and services under the Lumen, Quantum Fiber, and CenturyLink brands. The company was formerly known as CenturyLink, Inc. and changed its name to Lumen Technologies, Inc. in September 2020. Lumen Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana.