Screen the sector spanning ad-supported media, streaming and telecom networks.
Communication services covers internet platforms, streaming media, telecom carriers and traditional broadcasters — a mix of high-growth advertising and content businesses alongside slower, capital-intensive network operators. That split makes a single screen misleading, so weighing engagement and monetisation for platforms against yield and debt load for carriers is essential.
Illustrative — not investment advice.
| Ticker | Company | Sub-industry | Quality Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| GOOGL | Alphabet | Internet search & advertising | 7.6/10 |
| META | Meta Platforms | Social media & digital advertising | 7.2/10 |
| NFLX | Netflix | Streaming video | 7.8/10 |
| T | AT&T | Telecommunications & wireless | 5.0/10 |
| VZ | Verizon Communications | Telecommunications & wireless | 5.0/10 |
| DIS | Walt Disney | Media, entertainment & streaming | 5.5/10 |
| TMUS | T-Mobile US | Wireless telecommunications | 6.5/10 |
| CMCSA | Comcast | Cable, broadband & media | 5.5/10 |
| CHTR | Charter Communications | Cable & broadband | 4.9/10 |
| EA | Electronic Arts | Video game publishing | — |
| TTWO | Take-Two Interactive | Video game publishing | 3.5/10 |
| WBD | Warner Bros. Discovery | Media, entertainment & streaming | 2.8/10 |
ARPU shows whether a platform or carrier is monetising its existing user base more effectively, the key growth lever once subscriber counts mature.
For streaming and wireless businesses, net user or subscriber additions are the leading indicator of revenue growth a quarter or two before it hits the top line.
Content spending and network capex can mask true cash generation; FCF yield tests whether growth is actually funding itself or requiring constant fresh capital.
Telecom carriers in particular run on heavy, debt-funded network investment; a leverage ceiling flags balance sheets stretched thin relative to cash flow.
After years of subscriber-growth-at-any-cost, streaming platforms are now prioritising password-sharing crackdowns, ad tiers and price increases to turn scale into actual profit.
Large advertising platforms are using AI to improve ad targeting and measurement, a margin lever that is widening the gap between the largest platforms and smaller ad-supported media.
With 5G buildouts maturing, telecom carriers are shifting focus from network capex toward free cash flow and debt paydown, changing the sector’s investment case.
Each one opens the screener with these filters already on the bar — change any of them, or save the screen under your own name.
Income first — a dividend-yield floor, with valuation and free-cash-flow filters to screen out yield traps.
Durable, capital-efficient businesses: high returns on capital and fat margins, still growing.
Smaller companies compounding revenue faster than the market has noticed, and paying for themselves in cash.
Every card above opens the screener with the sector filter and its own bounds already on the bar. Change any of them — nothing here is fixed.
Stack valuation, profitability, growth, dividend and financial-health filters. Each one is a range with presets, the table answers as you move a bound, and every filter says how many companies it excluded for want of a value.
Open any survivor for the four intrinsic-value models, then save it to a watchlist with a margin-of-safety target so each name carries an undervalued / fair / rich signal.
Screen for strong ARPU trends, healthy subscriber or user growth, solid free-cash-flow yield and manageable leverage. Because the sector mixes ad-platforms with telecom carriers, weigh these metrics differently depending on the business model.
Open the company’s Intrinsic Value tab: Lemma Analysis prices it four ways at once — Advanced DCF, Ben Graham, Simple DCF and the Dividend Discount Model — and draws all four on one axis against today’s price, with every assumption editable and a bear/base/bull case behind each one. There is deliberately no blended figure; which methods fit the company is stated instead, with the reason beside any that does not. The sector holds two different animals — a dividend-paying telecom and a platform that pays none — so which of the four fit changes from one company to the next, and the page states it per company rather than per sector. Intrinsic Value is free for 3 companies a day with no account needed, and unlimited on Ultimate, which every new account gets for seven days without a card.
There is no one answer for a sector, and a page that gave you one would be stating a figure it cannot keep true. What the Fair Value tab does instead is ask it per company: seven multiples — P/E, Yield, P/FCF, P/OCF, P/S, EV/EBITDA and P/B — each measured against that company’s own history, so today’s reading is a percentile of what the market has actually paid for it rather than a comparison with a sector average. The sector holds two different animals — a dividend-paying, debt-carrying telecom and a platform that pays nothing — so which lenses apply changes from one company to the next, and the tab states it per company rather than per sector. Fair Value is free for 3 companies a day with no account needed, and unlimited on Ultimate, which every new account gets for seven days without a card.
Yes — the screener is part of Ultimate. Every new account gets Ultimate for seven days with no credit card, which is enough to build a communication services screen, sort it and keep it; a screen you save stays on your account.
GICS groups businesses by how people communicate and consume media, from search and social to streaming and wireless networks — even though their growth profiles and capital intensity differ sharply, which is why a single metric rarely fits the whole sector.
The screener is part of Ultimate, and every new account gets it for seven days: create an account, confirm your email, and the trial starts without a card. What you have built stays yours either way — a screen is an address, so the link you saved keeps working the day you subscribe.