Head to Head Review: SurgePays (NASDAQ:SURG) vs. Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN)

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

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

Profitability

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

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

Risk & Volatility

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Lumen Technologies and SurgePays, as reported by MarketBeat.

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

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

Valuation and Earnings

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

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

SurgePays has lower revenue, but higher earnings 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.

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.

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.