UGI vs. NFG, MDU, IDA, SWX, BIPC, POR, AQN, NJR, ENIC, and ELP
Should you be buying UGI stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of UGI include National Fuel Gas (NFG), MDU Resources Group (MDU), IDACORP (IDA), Southwest Gas (SWX), Brookfield Infrastructure (BIPC), Portland General Electric (POR), Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN), New Jersey Resources (NJR), Enel Chile (ENIC), and Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL (ELP). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
UGI (NYSE:UGI) and National Fuel Gas (NYSE:NFG) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, earnings and media sentiment.
National Fuel Gas has a net margin of 23.84% compared to UGI's net margin of -0.89%. UGI's return on equity of 15.78% beat National Fuel Gas' return on equity.
In the previous week, UGI had 12 more articles in the media than National Fuel Gas. MarketBeat recorded 17 mentions for UGI and 5 mentions for National Fuel Gas. National Fuel Gas' average media sentiment score of 1.60 beat UGI's score of 0.37 indicating that National Fuel Gas is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
UGI has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, National Fuel Gas has a beta of 0.63, meaning that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.
National Fuel Gas has lower revenue, but higher earnings than UGI. UGI is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than National Fuel Gas, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
UGI presently has a consensus price target of $27.00, suggesting a potential upside of 10.38%. National Fuel Gas has a consensus price target of $68.00, suggesting a potential upside of 22.79%. Given National Fuel Gas' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe National Fuel Gas is more favorable than UGI.
National Fuel Gas received 226 more outperform votes than UGI when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.83% of users gave National Fuel Gas an outperform vote while only 53.77% of users gave UGI an outperform vote.
82.3% of UGI shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.0% of National Fuel Gas shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of UGI shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of National Fuel Gas shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
UGI pays an annual dividend of $1.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.1%. National Fuel Gas pays an annual dividend of $1.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. UGI pays out -365.8% 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. UGI is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
National Fuel Gas beats UGI on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UGI 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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