LNT vs. NI, EVRG, AEE, ALE, AVA, NOVA, WEC, XEL, ED, and PEG
Should you be buying Alliant Energy stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Alliant Energy include NiSource (NI), Evergy (EVRG), Ameren (AEE), ALLETE (ALE), Avista (AVA), Sunnova Energy International (NOVA), WEC Energy Group (WEC), Xcel Energy (XEL), Consolidated Edison (ED), and Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG). These companies are all part of the "electric & other services combined" industry.
NiSource (NYSE:NI) and Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, profitability, media sentiment, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.
NiSource has a beta of 0.49, indicating that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alliant Energy has a beta of 0.55, indicating that its share price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500.
NiSource currently has a consensus price target of $29.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3.79%. Alliant Energy has a consensus price target of $51.36, suggesting a potential upside of 3.56%. Given Alliant Energy's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe NiSource is more favorable than Alliant Energy.
In the previous week, Alliant Energy had 1 more articles in the media than NiSource. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Alliant Energy and 6 mentions for NiSource. NiSource's average media sentiment score of 1.07 beat Alliant Energy's score of 0.72 indicating that Alliant Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
NiSource has higher revenue and earnings than Alliant Energy. Alliant Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NiSource, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
91.6% of NiSource shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.9% of Alliant Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of NiSource shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Alliant Energy shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Alliant Energy has a net margin of 17.46% compared to Alliant Energy's net margin of 12.98%. NiSource's return on equity of 10.85% beat Alliant Energy's return on equity.
NiSource pays an annual dividend of $1.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Alliant Energy pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. NiSource pays out 72.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Alliant Energy pays out 69.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. NiSource has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years and Alliant Energy has raised its dividend for 21 consecutive years. Alliant Energy is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
NiSource received 391 more outperform votes than Alliant Energy when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 53.92% of users gave NiSource an outperform vote while only 33.85% of users gave Alliant Energy an outperform vote.
Summary
Alliant Energy beats NiSource on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding LNT 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 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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