WTRG vs. SBS, CWT, AWR, AWK, PNW, EVRG, NI, LNT, BEP, and AGR
Should you be buying Essential Utilities stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Essential Utilities include Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (SBS), California Water Service Group (CWT), American States Water (AWR), American Water Works (AWK), Pinnacle West Capital (PNW), Evergy (EVRG), NiSource (NI), Alliant Energy (LNT), Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP), and Avangrid (AGR). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (NYSE:SBS) and Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, community ranking and media sentiment.
10.6% of Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.8% of Essential Utilities shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Essential Utilities shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP has higher revenue and earnings than Essential Utilities. Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Essential Utilities, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Essential Utilities has a consensus target price of $43.00, suggesting a potential upside of 17.71%. Given Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Essential Utilities is more favorable than Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP.
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP has a beta of 1.21, indicating that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Essential Utilities has a beta of 0.8, indicating that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Essential Utilities had 12 more articles in the media than Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for Essential Utilities and 3 mentions for Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP. Essential Utilities' average media sentiment score of 1.41 beat Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP's score of 0.16 indicating that Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Essential Utilities has a net margin of 29.52% compared to Essential Utilities' net margin of 13.62%. Essential Utilities' return on equity of 12.14% beat Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP's return on equity.
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP received 201 more outperform votes than Essential Utilities when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.22% of users gave Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP an outperform vote while only 30.14% of users gave Essential Utilities an outperform vote.
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP pays an annual dividend of $0.23 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Essential Utilities pays an annual dividend of $1.23 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP pays out 21.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Essential Utilities pays out 58.3% 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. Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Essential Utilities has raised its dividend for 31 consecutive years. Essential Utilities is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Summary
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP and Essential Utilities tied by winning 10 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding WTRG 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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