SWX vs. ATO, NFG, UGI, NJR, CPK, NWN, OKE, CTRI, NEXT, and RGCO
Should you be buying Southwest Gas stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Southwest Gas include Atmos Energy (ATO), National Fuel Gas (NFG), UGI (UGI), New Jersey Resources (NJR), Chesapeake Utilities (CPK), Northwest Natural (NWN), ONEOK (OKE), Centuri (CTRI), NextDecade (NEXT), and RGC Resources (RGCO).
Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) and Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) are both utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations and community ranking.
92.8% of Southwest Gas shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.2% of Atmos Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Southwest Gas shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Atmos Energy shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Atmos Energy has a net margin of 24.65% compared to Southwest Gas' net margin of 3.56%. Atmos Energy's return on equity of 9.01% beat Southwest Gas' return on equity.
Atmos Energy received 195 more outperform votes than Southwest Gas when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.43% of users gave Atmos Energy an outperform vote while only 51.49% of users gave Southwest Gas an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Atmos Energy had 4 more articles in the media than Southwest Gas. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Atmos Energy and 5 mentions for Southwest Gas. Atmos Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.30 beat Southwest Gas' score of 0.60 indicating that Atmos Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Atmos Energy has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Southwest Gas. Atmos Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southwest Gas, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Southwest Gas currently has a consensus target price of $75.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1.43%. Atmos Energy has a consensus target price of $129.17, suggesting a potential upside of 12.60%. Given Atmos Energy's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Atmos Energy is more favorable than Southwest Gas.
Southwest Gas has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its share price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Atmos Energy has a beta of 0.67, suggesting that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Southwest Gas pays an annual dividend of $2.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Atmos Energy pays an annual dividend of $3.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Southwest Gas pays out 92.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Atmos Energy pays out 48.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.
Summary
Atmos Energy beats Southwest Gas on 16 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding SWX 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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