NI vs. AEE, WEC, ED, PEG, PCG, LNT, EVRG, ALE, XEL, and EXC
Should you be buying NiSource stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of NiSource include Ameren (AEE), WEC Energy Group (WEC), Consolidated Edison (ED), Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG), PG&E (PCG), Alliant Energy (LNT), Evergy (EVRG), ALLETE (ALE), Xcel Energy (XEL), and Exelon (EXC). These companies are all part of the "electric & other services combined" industry.
Ameren (NYSE:AEE) and NiSource (NYSE:NI) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, media sentiment, dividends, community ranking, risk, profitability, valuation and earnings.
Ameren currently has a consensus price target of $79.40, suggesting a potential upside of 6.79%. NiSource has a consensus price target of $29.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3.94%. Given NiSource's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ameren is more favorable than NiSource.
Ameren pays an annual dividend of $2.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. NiSource pays an annual dividend of $1.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Ameren pays out 61.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NiSource pays out 72.1% 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. Ameren has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years and NiSource has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years. NiSource is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Ameren has a beta of 0.44, meaning that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NiSource has a beta of 0.49, meaning that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Ameren has higher revenue and earnings than NiSource. Ameren is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NiSource, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Ameren had 13 more articles in the media than NiSource. MarketBeat recorded 19 mentions for Ameren and 6 mentions for NiSource. Ameren's average media sentiment score of 0.76 beat NiSource's score of 0.23 indicating that NiSource is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
NiSource received 67 more outperform votes than Ameren when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 53.92% of users gave NiSource an outperform vote while only 51.26% of users gave Ameren an outperform vote.
Ameren has a net margin of 15.36% compared to Ameren's net margin of 12.98%. NiSource's return on equity of 10.42% beat Ameren's return on equity.
79.1% of Ameren shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of NiSource shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Ameren shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of NiSource shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
Ameren beats NiSource 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 NI 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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