XEL vs. DUK, PCG, EXC, PEG, ED, WEC, AEE, CMS, LNT, and NI
Should you be buying Xcel Energy stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Xcel Energy include Duke Energy (DUK), PG&E (PCG), Exelon (EXC), Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG), Consolidated Edison (ED), WEC Energy Group (WEC), Ameren (AEE), CMS Energy (CMS), Alliant Energy (LNT), and NiSource (NI). These companies are all part of the "electric & other services combined" industry.
Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) and Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, earnings, media sentiment, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and community ranking.
65.3% of Duke Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.4% of Xcel Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Duke Energy shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Xcel Energy shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Duke Energy pays an annual dividend of $4.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Xcel Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.19 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Duke Energy pays out 103.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Xcel Energy pays out 65.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Xcel Energy has raised its dividend for 21 consecutive years. Xcel Energy is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Xcel Energy has a net margin of 13.36% compared to Xcel Energy's net margin of 10.78%. Duke Energy's return on equity of 11.03% beat Xcel Energy's return on equity.
Duke Energy received 565 more outperform votes than Xcel Energy when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 53.67% of users gave Duke Energy an outperform vote while only 28.57% of users gave Xcel Energy an outperform vote.
Duke Energy has a beta of 0.45, meaning that its share price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Xcel Energy has a beta of 0.38, meaning that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Duke Energy had 8 more articles in the media than Xcel Energy. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for Duke Energy and 12 mentions for Xcel Energy. Duke Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.43 beat Xcel Energy's score of 0.87 indicating that Xcel Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Duke Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Xcel Energy. Xcel Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Duke Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Duke Energy presently has a consensus target price of $102.75, indicating a potential upside of 0.13%. Xcel Energy has a consensus target price of $62.27, indicating a potential upside of 13.76%. Given Duke Energy's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Xcel Energy is more favorable than Duke Energy.
Summary
Duke Energy beats Xcel Energy on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding XEL 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 NASDAQ 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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