SJW vs. MSEX, AWR, CWT, YORW, VEON, TAC, NWN, TDS, CPK, and KEN
Should you be buying SJW Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of SJW Group include Middlesex Water (MSEX), American States Water (AWR), California Water Service Group (CWT), York Water (YORW), VEON (VEON), TransAlta (TAC), Northwest Natural (NWN), Telephone and Data Systems (TDS), Chesapeake Utilities (CPK), and Kenon (KEN). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
SJW Group (NYSE:SJW) and Middlesex Water (NASDAQ:MSEX) are both small-cap utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, dividends, valuation, community ranking and profitability.
In the previous week, SJW Group had 2 more articles in the media than Middlesex Water. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for SJW Group and 1 mentions for Middlesex Water. SJW Group's average media sentiment score of 1.46 beat Middlesex Water's score of 0.00 indicating that SJW Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.
SJW Group has higher revenue and earnings than Middlesex Water. SJW Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Middlesex Water, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Middlesex Water has a net margin of 21.55% compared to SJW Group's net margin of 12.48%. Middlesex Water's return on equity of 8.64% beat SJW Group's return on equity.
SJW Group pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Middlesex Water pays an annual dividend of $1.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. SJW Group pays out 60.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Middlesex Water pays out 64.4% 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. SJW Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
SJW Group presently has a consensus target price of $66.00, indicating a potential upside of 9.91%. Middlesex Water has a consensus target price of $58.00, indicating a potential upside of 1.38%. Given SJW Group's higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe SJW Group is more favorable than Middlesex Water.
SJW Group has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Middlesex Water has a beta of 0.74, indicating that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.
SJW Group received 158 more outperform votes than Middlesex Water when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.61% of users gave SJW Group an outperform vote while only 61.38% of users gave Middlesex Water an outperform vote.
84.3% of SJW Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.5% of Middlesex Water shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of SJW Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Middlesex Water shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
SJW Group beats Middlesex Water on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding SJW 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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