CNA vs. UU, SVT, DRX, PNN, SSE, OPG, ETP, TEP, YU, and HGEN
Should you be buying Centrica stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Centrica include United Utilities Group (UU), Severn Trent (SVT), Drax Group (DRX), Pennon Group (PNN), SSE (SSE), OPG Power Ventures (OPG), Eneraqua Technologies (ETP), Telecom Plus (TEP), Yü Group (YU), and HydrogenOne Capital Growth (HGEN). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
United Utilities Group (LON:UU) and Centrica (LON:CNA) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations, community ranking and profitability.
United Utilities Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 47 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Centrica pays an annual dividend of GBX 4 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. United Utilities Group pays out -94,000.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Centrica pays out 579.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. United Utilities Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
In the previous week, United Utilities Group and United Utilities Group both had 4 articles in the media. Centrica's average media sentiment score of 1.23 beat United Utilities Group's score of 1.08 indicating that United Utilities Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.
66.7% of United Utilities Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.3% of Centrica shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of United Utilities Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Centrica 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.
Centrica has a net margin of 14.85% compared to Centrica's net margin of -1.66%. United Utilities Group's return on equity of 146.56% beat Centrica's return on equity.
Centrica has higher revenue and earnings than United Utilities Group. United Utilities Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Centrica, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
United Utilities Group currently has a consensus target price of GBX 1,246.67, suggesting a potential upside of 24.54%. Centrica has a consensus target price of GBX 156.25, suggesting a potential upside of 18.96%. Given Centrica's higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe United Utilities Group is more favorable than Centrica.
Centrica received 527 more outperform votes than United Utilities Group when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.54% of users gave United Utilities Group an outperform vote while only 57.96% of users gave Centrica an outperform vote.
United Utilities Group has a beta of 0.4, meaning that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Centrica has a beta of 1.1, meaning that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Centrica beats United Utilities Group on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get Centrica News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for CNA and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding CNA 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 LON 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.
Centrica Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
