FE vs. SO, DUK, EIX, ETR, PPL, ES, PNW, OGE, IDA, and POR
Should you be buying FirstEnergy stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of FirstEnergy include Southern (SO), Duke Energy (DUK), Edison International (EIX), Entergy (ETR), PPL (PPL), Eversource Energy (ES), Pinnacle West Capital (PNW), OGE Energy (OGE), IDACORP (IDA), and Portland General Electric (POR). These companies are all part of the "electric utilities" industry.
Southern (NYSE:SO) and FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, media sentiment, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, community ranking and institutional ownership.
In the previous week, Southern had 9 more articles in the media than FirstEnergy. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for Southern and 11 mentions for FirstEnergy. Southern's average media sentiment score of 0.83 beat FirstEnergy's score of 0.64 indicating that FirstEnergy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Southern currently has a consensus price target of $76.36, indicating a potential downside of 2.03%. FirstEnergy has a consensus price target of $40.27, indicating a potential upside of 3.74%. Given Southern's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe FirstEnergy is more favorable than Southern.
FirstEnergy received 63 more outperform votes than Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 56.39% of users gave FirstEnergy an outperform vote while only 49.95% of users gave Southern an outperform vote.
Southern pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. FirstEnergy pays an annual dividend of $1.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Southern pays out 74.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. FirstEnergy pays out 97.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Southern has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and FirstEnergy has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. FirstEnergy is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Southern has higher revenue and earnings than FirstEnergy. Southern is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than FirstEnergy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Southern has a net margin of 16.74% compared to Southern's net margin of 8.22%. Southern's return on equity of 12.45% beat FirstEnergy's return on equity.
Southern has a beta of 0.51, suggesting that its share price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FirstEnergy has a beta of 0.5, suggesting that its share price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500.
64.1% of Southern shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.4% of FirstEnergy shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Southern shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of FirstEnergy shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
Southern beats FirstEnergy on 13 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding FE 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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