Communication services in 2026 tracks digital advertising, subscriber economics, content monetization, and telecom investment. Watch how platform businesses convert scale into earnings growth versus lower-growth telecom operators.
Social media giants Alphabet and Meta drive this advertising-heavy sector, trading at 18x Forward P/E. This dashboard tracks valuation trends, equal-weight performance, and sector component data across all 300+ internet and telecom stocks.
Sector Market Cap
$11.69T
Tracks 245 stocks · top 50 by market cap
Median YTD Return
-5.2%
Screener universe · median stock return
Median P/E
16.9x
Screener stocks · excludes outliers
Median Dividend Yield
2.67%
Screener stocks · excludes zeros
Sector Screener
Scan the sector leaders, compare valuations and fundamentals, then open the full screener to refine your criteria.
| Ticker | Company | Price | Mkt Cap | P/E | ROE | Div Yield | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netflix, Inc. | $68.73 | $286.19B | 27.2 | 42.8% | — | ||
| Comcast Holdings Corp. | $64.69 | $233.98B | 12.0 | 21.5% | 2% | ||
| Verizon Communications Inc. | $45.93 | $191.78B | 11.3 | 16.6% | 5.9% | ||
| The Walt Disney Company | $104.03 | $180.65B | 15.2 | 11.3% | 1% | ||
| T-Mobile US, Inc. | $165.97 | $178.03B | 17.1 | 18.2% | 2.2% | ||
| AT&T Inc. | $24.43 | $167.44B | 8.0 | 17.6% | 4.7% | ||
| AT&T Inc. 5.35% GLB NTS 66 | $18.84 | $115.67B | 6.2 | 17.6% | 6% | ||
| Spotify Technology S.A. | $488.02 | $100.33B | 41.4 | 31.9% | — | ||
| DoorDash, Inc. | $193.59 | $84.35B | 90.9 | 10.5% | — | ||
| Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. | $30.95 | $77.6B | 106.7 | 2% | — | ||
| Comcast Corporation | $21.58 | $76.58B | 4.0 | 21.8% | 6.2% | ||
| América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. | $22.39 | $67.23B | 15.7 | 18.1% | 2.5% | ||
| Nebius Group N.V. | $249.79 | $59.95B | 2270.8 | 2.6% | — | ||
| RELX Plc | $34.05 | $59.48B | 23.0 | 70.1% | 2.4% | ||
| Twilio Inc. | $278.79 | $42.31B | 1327.5 | 0.4% | — | ||
| Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. | $171.60 | $39.93B | -715.0 | 26.4% | — | ||
| Vodafone Group Public Limited Company | $16.54 | $38.17B | -92.1 | -0.7% | 3.1% | ||
| Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. | $46.07 | $35.74B | 29.3 | 9.7% | 3.4% | ||
| TKO Group Holdings, Inc. | $176.44 | $34.34B | 78.1 | 2.2% | 1.9% | ||
| Baidu, Inc. | $87.07 | $29.61B | 49.6 | 1.9% | — | ||
| Reddit, Inc. | $148.97 | $28.68B | 56.9 | 20.9% | — | ||
| Fox Corporation | $62.11 | $27.24B | 16.2 | 14% | 1.1% | ||
| Fox Corporation | $55.59 | $24.38B | 14.3 | 14% | 1.2% | ||
| Liberty Media Corporation | $95.50 | $23.93B | 44.4 | 7% | — | ||
| Roku, Inc. | $152.09 | $22.56B | 257.8 | 3.4% | — | ||
| Telefónica, S.A. | $3.81 | $21.48B | -57.3 | -0.2% | 9.7% | ||
| Omnicom Group Inc. | $75.15 | $20.62B | -278.3 | -0.6% | 3.6% | ||
| Telefônica Brasil S.A. | $12.66 | $20.24B | 16.7 | 8.7% | 2.1% | ||
| BCE Inc. | $19.73 | $18.4B | 4.1 | 31.8% | 7.8% | ||
| News Corporation | $31.51 | $17.25B | 30.6 | 6.2% | 1.2% |
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NWSSector Outlook
Communication services in 2026 tracks digital advertising, subscriber economics, content monetization, and telecom investment. Watch how platform businesses convert scale into earnings growth versus lower-growth telecom operators.
Leadership may come from companies with stronger user engagement, ad pricing resilience, or disciplined capital returns. Capital-intensive operators depend more on execution and balance sheet management.
Relative valuation works best within the right subgroup rather than across the entire basket.
Learn
Communication Services includes telecom carriers, cable providers, media, streaming, and large internet platforms. Growth platforms and slower telecom operators sit side by side.
The GICS reshuffle moved major internet and social platforms out of technology. Sector averages can hide big differences in margins, growth, and balance sheet intensity.
Separate advertising and platform economics from telecom and media infrastructure before making valuation comparisons.
XLC gives broad access, but stock selection matters because the sector contains both asset-heavy telecom and higher-margin digital platforms.
Key risks: ad slowdowns, subscriber churn, content spending, and capital intensity for network operators. Platform companies deserve a different valuation framework than wireline or wireless carriers.
Use the screener to compare growth, profitability, and valuation, then keep business model in context. Sector averages alone are misleading.
Telecom carriers, media companies, streaming businesses, broadband operators, and large internet platforms. The screener above shows the sector list.
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Use our powerful screener to filter Communication Services stocks by market cap, valuation, profitability, and dozens of other fundamental metrics.
Valuation, growth, profitability, technicals
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Bookmark custom screens and track over time
Track the XLC sector ETF performance vs S&P 500. The basket shows equal-weight returns of top 50 stocks by market cap.
Momentum Leaders
Market Comparison
Against the S&P 500, Communication Services currently trades at 27.6x trailing earnings versus 34.5x for the broad market. The sector is currently trading at a discount to the market, despite delivering stronger margins or returns on equity—potentially indicating a value opportunity.
Valuation
20% below S&P 500 trailing P/E
| Metric | Communication Services | S&P 500 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trailing P/E | 27.6x | 34.5x | Sector cheaper |
| Forward P/E | 17.1x | 22.9x | Sector cheaper |
| EV/EBITDA | 18.9x | 23.4x | Sector cheaper |
83th percentile; range 15.1x to 30.2x
88th percentile; range 7.5x to 30.2x
Quality
Net margin 45.5% vs 28.6%; ROE 43.4% vs 49.3%
| Metric | Communication Services | S&P 500 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Margin | 45.5% | 28.6% | Sector stronger |
| ROE | 43.4% | 49.3% | S&P 500 stronger |
Income
Sector yield 0.49% vs 0.97%
| Metric | Communication Services | S&P 500 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dividend Yield | 0.5% | 1.0% | S&P 500 yields more |
These cards are built from the full sector universe, then ranked by market cap so you can see which pockets are leading, rich, resilient, or dangerously concentrated.
Industry Scoreboard
Use this table to spot heavyweights, cheap pockets, leaders, and genuinely beaten-down areas before opening the detailed cards below.
Telecom Services 61 stocks | 40.6% $1.12T | Neutral -6.6% median 3M | Cheap 9.3x median Fwd P/E | Mixed 6.9% median ROE | Weak 1.7% rev growth | Mixed Diversified |
Entertainment 49 stocks | 30.4% $843.38B | Leading -3.7% median 3M | Premium 19.2x median Fwd P/E | Mixed 2.5% median ROE | Strong 5.7% rev growth | Expensive Leader Concentrated |
Internet Services 61 stocks | 15.1% $418.12B | Lagging -16.8% median 3M | Fair 9.7x median Fwd P/E | Mixed -3.5% median ROE | Strong 2.0% rev growth | Watchlist Diversified |
Broadcasting 18 stocks | 8.7% $240.31B | Neutral -10.4% median 3M | Fair 6.4x median Fwd P/E | Weak -4.2% median ROE | Weak -7.0% rev growth | Mixed One-name heavy |
Publishing 10 stocks | 3.2% $87.99B | Leading -12.7% median 3M | Premium 22.8x median Fwd P/E | High 20.7% median ROE | Average -3.4% rev growth | Expensive Leader One-name heavy |
Advertising & Marketing 43 stocks | 2.0% $54.08B | Neutral -18.9% median 3M | Fair 8.0x median Fwd P/E | Mixed -1.0% median ROE | Weak 4.0% rev growth | Mixed Concentrated |
Asset Management 1 stocks | 0.1% $2.24B | Leading +130.8% median 3M | Fair - median Fwd P/E | Weak -117.0% median ROE | Strong 76.8% rev growth | Watchlist One-name heavy |
Gaming & Multimedia 2 stocks | 0.0% $138M | Lagging -50.0% median 3M | Fair 17.8x median Fwd P/E | High 15.4% median ROE | Weak -74.1% rev growth | Broken One-name heavy |
Showing 8 of 8 industries in Communication Services.
Setup is a quick read of value, quality, growth, momentum, and concentration together.
Earnings Calendar
Earnings reports are the biggest near-term catalysts for sector moves. Track which names report in the next 60 days and size your positions accordingly.