MSEX vs. YORW, CWCO, ARTNA, SJW, AWR, CWT, GWRS, PCYO, UTL, and IDT
Should you be buying Middlesex Water stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Middlesex Water include York Water (YORW), Consolidated Water (CWCO), Artesian Resources (ARTNA), SJW Group (SJW), American States Water (AWR), California Water Service Group (CWT), Global Water Resources (GWRS), Pure Cycle (PCYO), Unitil (UTL), and IDT (IDT). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
Middlesex Water (NASDAQ:MSEX) and York Water (NASDAQ:YORW) are both small-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, media sentiment, dividends, valuation, profitability, community ranking, institutional ownership, earnings and analyst recommendations.
Middlesex Water has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, York Water has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Middlesex Water pays an annual dividend of $1.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. York Water pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Middlesex Water pays out 73.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. York Water pays out 50.6% 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.
Middlesex Water has higher revenue and earnings than York Water. York Water is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Middlesex Water, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Middlesex Water received 23 more outperform votes than York Water when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.44% of users gave Middlesex Water an outperform vote while only 57.62% of users gave York Water an outperform vote.
In the previous week, York Water had 7 more articles in the media than Middlesex Water. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for York Water and 0 mentions for Middlesex Water. Middlesex Water's average media sentiment score of 1.67 beat York Water's score of -0.29 indicating that Middlesex Water is being referred to more favorably in the media.
York Water has a net margin of 33.45% compared to Middlesex Water's net margin of 18.96%. York Water's return on equity of 11.05% beat Middlesex Water's return on equity.
79.5% of Middlesex Water shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.9% of York Water shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of Middlesex Water shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of York Water shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Middlesex Water presently has a consensus price target of $59.00, indicating a potential upside of 11.05%. Given Middlesex Water's higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Middlesex Water is more favorable than York Water.
Summary
Middlesex Water beats York Water on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MSEX 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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