UGI vs. SWX, MDU, NFG, IDA, BEP, POR, NJR, AQN, BIPC, and ENIC
Should you be buying UGI stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of UGI include Southwest Gas (SWX), 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), Brookfield Infrastructure (BIPC), and Enel Chile (ENIC). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
UGI (NYSE:UGI) and Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, community ranking, valuation, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment, risk and dividends.
Southwest Gas has lower revenue, but higher earnings than UGI. UGI is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southwest Gas, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
UGI presently has a consensus price target of $27.50, suggesting a potential upside of 6.92%. Southwest Gas has a consensus price target of $73.00, suggesting a potential downside of 2.18%. Given UGI's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe UGI is more favorable than Southwest Gas.
In the previous week, Southwest Gas had 1 more articles in the media than UGI. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Southwest Gas and 6 mentions for UGI. UGI's average media sentiment score of 0.46 beat Southwest Gas' score of 0.29 indicating that UGI is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Southwest Gas has a net margin of 2.78% compared to UGI's net margin of -5.48%. UGI's return on equity of 14.09% beat Southwest Gas' return on equity.
82.3% of UGI shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.8% of Southwest Gas shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of UGI shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Southwest Gas shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
UGI pays an annual dividend of $1.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.8%. Southwest Gas pays an annual dividend of $2.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. UGI pays out -68.2% 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. UGI is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Southwest Gas received 56 more outperform votes than UGI when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 53.79% of users gave UGI an outperform vote while only 51.59% of users gave Southwest Gas an outperform vote.
UGI has a beta of 1.16, indicating that its stock price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southwest Gas has a beta of 0.36, indicating that its stock price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
UGI beats Southwest Gas on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UGI 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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