AEE vs. CMS, WEC, NI, ED, PEG, PCG, LNT, EVRG, XEL, and EXC
Should you be buying Ameren stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ameren include CMS Energy (CMS), WEC Energy Group (WEC), NiSource (NI), Consolidated Edison (ED), Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG), PG&E (PCG), Alliant Energy (LNT), Evergy (EVRG), Xcel Energy (XEL), and Exelon (EXC). These companies are all part of the "electric & other services combined" industry.
CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) and Ameren (NYSE:AEE) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, community ranking and media sentiment.
In the previous week, Ameren had 10 more articles in the media than CMS Energy. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for Ameren and 18 mentions for CMS Energy. Ameren's average media sentiment score of 0.95 beat CMS Energy's score of 0.30 indicating that CMS Energy is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Ameren has a net margin of 15.84% compared to Ameren's net margin of 13.19%. Ameren's return on equity of 12.83% beat CMS Energy's return on equity.
CMS Energy received 198 more outperform votes than Ameren when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.57% of users gave CMS Energy an outperform vote while only 51.33% of users gave Ameren an outperform vote.
CMS Energy has a beta of 0.37, meaning that its stock price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ameren has a beta of 0.44, meaning that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.
93.6% of CMS Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.1% of Ameren shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of CMS Energy shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Ameren shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Ameren has higher revenue and earnings than CMS Energy. Ameren is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CMS Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
CMS Energy presently has a consensus target price of $63.50, indicating a potential upside of 3.61%. Ameren has a consensus target price of $79.90, indicating a potential upside of 8.05%. Given CMS Energy's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ameren is more favorable than CMS Energy.
CMS Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Ameren pays an annual dividend of $2.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. CMS Energy pays out 62.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ameren pays out 61.6% 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. CMS Energy has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Ameren has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Ameren is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Summary
Ameren beats CMS Energy on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AEE 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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