ALE vs. NWE, AVA, EVRG, NI, LNT, SR, PNM, OTTR, OGS, and BKH
Should you be buying ALLETE stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of ALLETE include NorthWestern Energy Group (NWE), Avista (AVA), Evergy (EVRG), NiSource (NI), Alliant Energy (LNT), Spire (SR), PNM Resources (PNM), Otter Tail (OTTR), ONE Gas (OGS), and Black Hills (BKH). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) and NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, community ranking, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, earnings, media sentiment and analyst recommendations.
In the previous week, NorthWestern Energy Group had 2 more articles in the media than ALLETE. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for NorthWestern Energy Group and 8 mentions for ALLETE. NorthWestern Energy Group's average media sentiment score of 0.86 beat ALLETE's score of 0.72 indicating that NorthWestern Energy Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
NorthWestern Energy Group has a net margin of 13.62% compared to ALLETE's net margin of 13.15%.
ALLETE pays an annual dividend of $2.82 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. NorthWestern Energy Group pays an annual dividend of $2.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. ALLETE pays out 65.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NorthWestern Energy Group pays out 80.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.
76.6% of ALLETE shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of NorthWestern Energy Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of ALLETE shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of NorthWestern Energy Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
ALLETE received 284 more outperform votes than NorthWestern Energy Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 52.38% of users gave ALLETE an outperform vote while only 13.33% of users gave NorthWestern Energy Group an outperform vote.
ALLETE has a beta of 0.75, suggesting that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NorthWestern Energy Group has a beta of 0.43, suggesting that its share price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500.
ALLETE currently has a consensus price target of $58.60, suggesting a potential downside of 8.82%. NorthWestern Energy Group has a consensus price target of $51.71, suggesting a potential upside of 1.04%. Given NorthWestern Energy Group's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe NorthWestern Energy Group is more favorable than ALLETE.
ALLETE has higher revenue and earnings than NorthWestern Energy Group. ALLETE is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NorthWestern Energy Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
NorthWestern Energy Group beats ALLETE on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ALE 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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