ACO.X vs. CU, ACO.Y, JE, BIP.UN, EMA, BEP.UN, BEPC, BIPC, AQN, and NPI
Should you be buying ATCO stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of ATCO include Canadian Utilities (CU), ATCO (ACO.Y), Just Energy Group (JE), Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP.UN), Emera (EMA), Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP.UN), Brookfield Renewable (BEPC), Brookfield Infrastructure (BIPC), Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN), and Northland Power (NPI). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
ATCO (TSE:ACO.X) and Canadian Utilities (TSE:CU) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, media sentiment, community ranking, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and earnings.
In the previous week, Canadian Utilities had 5 more articles in the media than ATCO. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for Canadian Utilities and 1 mentions for ATCO. ATCO's average media sentiment score of 0.30 beat Canadian Utilities' score of 0.26 indicating that ATCO is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Canadian Utilities has lower revenue, but higher earnings than ATCO. ATCO is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Canadian Utilities, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
27.9% of ATCO shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 14.7% of Canadian Utilities shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of ATCO shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 38.0% of Canadian Utilities shares are held by company 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.
Canadian Utilities received 218 more outperform votes than ATCO when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 59.72% of users gave Canadian Utilities an outperform vote while only 46.39% of users gave ATCO an outperform vote.
ATCO currently has a consensus price target of C$45.92, suggesting a potential upside of 14.62%. Canadian Utilities has a consensus price target of C$35.43, suggesting a potential upside of 14.51%. Given ATCO's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe ATCO is more favorable than Canadian Utilities.
Canadian Utilities has a net margin of 17.49% compared to ATCO's net margin of 8.75%. Canadian Utilities' return on equity of 9.25% beat ATCO's return on equity.
ATCO has a beta of 0.67, meaning that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Canadian Utilities has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.
ATCO pays an annual dividend of C$1.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Canadian Utilities pays an annual dividend of C$1.81 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.8%. ATCO pays out 53.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Canadian Utilities pays out 84.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.
Summary
ATCO and Canadian Utilities tied by winning 10 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get ATCO News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for ACO.X and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ACO.X and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of TSE 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.
Skip Chart
ACO.X vs. The Competition
Related Companies and Tools