Northwest Natural (NWN) Competitors

Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN) and Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, community ranking, media sentiment, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, valuation and risk.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer NWN or SWX?

Southwest Gas received 3 more outperform votes than Northwest Natural when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 52.50% of users gave Northwest Natural an outperform vote while only 51.49% of users gave Southwest Gas an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Northwest Natural	Outperform Votes 273 52.50%	Underperform Votes 247 47.50%
Southwest Gas	Outperform Votes 276 51.49%	Underperform Votes 260 48.51%

Which has more risk and volatility, NWN or SWX?

Northwest Natural has a beta of 0.57, suggesting that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southwest Gas has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer NWN or SWX?

In the previous week, Southwest Gas had 3 more articles in the media than Northwest Natural. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Southwest Gas and 4 mentions for Northwest Natural. Northwest Natural's average media sentiment score of 1.34 beat Southwest Gas' score of 0.60 indicating that Northwest Natural is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Northwest Natural	3 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Southwest Gas	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts prefer NWN or SWX?

Northwest Natural currently has a consensus target price of $41.40, indicating a potential upside of 14.62%. Southwest Gas has a consensus target price of $75.00, indicating a potential upside of 1.23%. Given Northwest Natural's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Northwest Natural is more favorable than Southwest Gas.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Northwest Natural	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25
Southwest Gas	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Is NWN or SWX a better dividend stock?

Northwest Natural pays an annual dividend of $1.95 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Southwest Gas pays an annual dividend of $2.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Northwest Natural pays out 85.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Southwest Gas pays out 92.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Northwest Natural is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has better earnings & valuation, NWN or SWX?

Southwest Gas has higher revenue and earnings than Northwest Natural. Northwest Natural is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southwest Gas, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Northwest Natural	$1.20B	1.15	$93.87M	$2.28	15.84
Southwest Gas	$5.43B	0.98	$150.89M	$2.67	27.75

Do insiders & institutionals believe in NWN or SWX?

75.1% of Northwest Natural shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.8% of Southwest Gas shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of Northwest Natural shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Southwest Gas shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is NWN or SWX more profitable?

Northwest Natural has a net margin of 7.36% compared to Southwest Gas' net margin of 3.56%. Northwest Natural's return on equity of 6.76% beat Southwest Gas' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Northwest Natural	7.36%	6.76%	1.82%
Southwest Gas	3.56%	6.71%	1.86%

Summary

Northwest Natural beats Southwest Gas on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.