AVA vs. MDU, BKH, PCG, SRE, D, PEG, ED, WEC, DTE, and CNP
Should you be buying Avista stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Avista include MDU Resources Group (MDU), Black Hills (BKH), PG&E (PCG), Sempra (SRE), Dominion Energy (D), Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG), Consolidated Edison (ED), WEC Energy Group (WEC), DTE Energy (DTE), and CenterPoint Energy (CNP). These companies are all part of the "multi-utilities" industry.
Avista (NYSE:AVA) and MDU Resources Group (NYSE:MDU) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, earnings, profitability, community ranking, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment and institutional ownership.
85.2% of Avista shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.4% of MDU Resources Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Avista shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of MDU Resources Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Avista had 1 more articles in the media than MDU Resources Group. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Avista and 4 mentions for MDU Resources Group. MDU Resources Group's average media sentiment score of 1.74 beat Avista's score of 1.04 indicating that MDU Resources Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
MDU Resources Group received 36 more outperform votes than Avista when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.87% of users gave MDU Resources Group an outperform vote while only 47.76% of users gave Avista an outperform vote.
MDU Resources Group has higher revenue and earnings than Avista. MDU Resources Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Avista, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Avista presently has a consensus target price of $35.00, suggesting a potential downside of 0.11%. MDU Resources Group has a consensus target price of $30.00, suggesting a potential upside of 22.60%. Given MDU Resources Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe MDU Resources Group is more favorable than Avista.
Avista pays an annual dividend of $1.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. MDU Resources Group pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Avista pays out 78.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. MDU Resources Group pays out 21.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.
MDU Resources Group has a net margin of 10.74% compared to Avista's net margin of 9.96%. MDU Resources Group's return on equity of 11.42% beat Avista's return on equity.
Avista has a beta of 0.49, suggesting that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MDU Resources Group has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
MDU Resources Group beats Avista on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AVA 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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