SWX vs. CPK, UGI, MDU, NFG, IDA, BEP, POR, NJR, AQN, and BIPC
Should you be buying Southwest Gas stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Southwest Gas include Chesapeake Utilities (CPK), UGI (UGI), MDU Resources Group (MDU), National Fuel Gas (NFG), IDACORP (IDA), Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP), Portland General Electric (POR), New Jersey Resources (NJR), Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN), and Brookfield Infrastructure (BIPC). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
Chesapeake Utilities (NYSE:CPK) and Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, media sentiment, dividends and analyst recommendations.
Southwest Gas has higher revenue and earnings than Chesapeake Utilities. Chesapeake Utilities is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southwest Gas, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Southwest Gas had 4 more articles in the media than Chesapeake Utilities. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for Southwest Gas and 4 mentions for Chesapeake Utilities. Southwest Gas' average media sentiment score of 1.56 beat Chesapeake Utilities' score of 0.39 indicating that Chesapeake Utilities is being referred to more favorably in the media.
83.1% of Chesapeake Utilities shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.8% of Southwest Gas shares are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of Chesapeake Utilities shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Southwest Gas shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Chesapeake Utilities received 60 more outperform votes than Southwest Gas when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.98% of users gave Chesapeake Utilities an outperform vote while only 51.59% of users gave Southwest Gas an outperform vote.
Chesapeake Utilities has a net margin of 13.01% compared to Chesapeake Utilities' net margin of 2.78%. Southwest Gas' return on equity of 10.19% beat Chesapeake Utilities' return on equity.
Chesapeake Utilities presently has a consensus target price of $107.00, indicating a potential upside of 1.78%. Southwest Gas has a consensus target price of $73.00, indicating a potential downside of 2.67%. Given Southwest Gas' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Chesapeake Utilities is more favorable than Southwest Gas.
Chesapeake Utilities pays an annual dividend of $2.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Southwest Gas pays an annual dividend of $2.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Chesapeake Utilities pays out 49.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Southwest Gas pays out 117.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Chesapeake Utilities has raised its dividend for 20 consecutive years.
Chesapeake Utilities has a beta of 0.6, suggesting that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southwest Gas has a beta of 0.36, suggesting that its share price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Chesapeake Utilities beats Southwest Gas on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding SWX 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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