ATO vs. NFG, EBR, CMS, CNP, AEE, FTS, VIV, NRG, PPL, and ES
Should you be buying Atmos Energy stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Atmos Energy include National Fuel Gas (NFG), Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras S.A. - Eletrobrás (EBR), CMS Energy (CMS), CenterPoint Energy (CNP), Ameren (AEE), Fortis (FTS), Telefônica Brasil (VIV), NRG Energy (NRG), PPL (PPL), and Eversource Energy (ES). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) and National Fuel Gas (NYSE:NFG) are both utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings, profitability, community ranking, media sentiment and analyst recommendations.
Atmos Energy presently has a consensus price target of $125.83, indicating a potential upside of 7.83%. National Fuel Gas has a consensus price target of $62.00, indicating a potential upside of 10.09%. Given National Fuel Gas' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe National Fuel Gas is more favorable than Atmos Energy.
Atmos Energy pays an annual dividend of $3.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. National Fuel Gas pays an annual dividend of $1.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Atmos Energy pays out 48.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. National Fuel Gas pays out 39.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. National Fuel Gas is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
90.2% of Atmos Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.0% of National Fuel Gas shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Atmos Energy shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of National Fuel Gas shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Atmos Energy has a net margin of 24.65% compared to National Fuel Gas' net margin of 23.84%. National Fuel Gas' return on equity of 15.06% beat Atmos Energy's return on equity.
In the previous week, Atmos Energy had 28 more articles in the media than National Fuel Gas. MarketBeat recorded 33 mentions for Atmos Energy and 5 mentions for National Fuel Gas. National Fuel Gas' average media sentiment score of 1.23 beat Atmos Energy's score of 0.97 indicating that National Fuel Gas is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Atmos Energy has higher revenue and earnings than National Fuel Gas. National Fuel Gas is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Atmos Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Atmos Energy received 23 more outperform votes than National Fuel Gas when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 65.83% of users gave National Fuel Gas an outperform vote while only 64.47% of users gave Atmos Energy an outperform vote.
Atmos Energy has a beta of 0.66, suggesting that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, National Fuel Gas has a beta of 0.63, suggesting that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Atmos Energy beats National Fuel Gas on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ATO and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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