NorthWestern (NWE) Competitors

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) and Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership and dividends.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, NWE or WTRG?

Essential Utilities has higher revenue and earnings than NorthWestern. NorthWestern is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Essential Utilities, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
NorthWestern	$1.51B	2.30	$224.11M	$3.67	15.44
Essential Utilities	$2.09B	5.09	$595.31M	$2.33	16.25

Is NWE or WTRG a better dividend stock?

NorthWestern pays an annual dividend of $2.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Essential Utilities pays an annual dividend of $1.37 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. NorthWestern pays out 71.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Essential Utilities pays out 58.8% 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. NorthWestern has increased its dividend for 21 consecutive years and Essential Utilities has increased its dividend for 32 consecutive years.

Is NWE or WTRG more profitable?

Essential Utilities has a net margin of 27.62% compared to NorthWestern's net margin of 14.76%. Essential Utilities' return on equity of 10.10% beat NorthWestern's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NorthWestern	14.76%	7.30%	2.61%
Essential Utilities	27.62%	10.10%	3.56%

Which has more volatility and risk, NWE or WTRG?

NorthWestern has a beta of 0.4, indicating that its stock price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Essential Utilities has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals and insiders believe in NWE or WTRG?

96.1% of NorthWestern shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.8% of Essential Utilities shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of NorthWestern shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Essential Utilities shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media refer more to NWE or WTRG?

In the previous week, Essential Utilities had 10 more articles in the media than NorthWestern. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Essential Utilities and 1 mentions for NorthWestern. Essential Utilities' average media sentiment score of 1.28 beat NorthWestern's score of 1.00 indicating that Essential Utilities is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
NorthWestern	Positive
Essential Utilities	Positive

Do analysts rate NWE or WTRG?

NorthWestern presently has a consensus target price of $56.00, indicating a potential downside of 1.18%. Essential Utilities has a consensus target price of $44.50, indicating a potential upside of 17.52%. Given Essential Utilities' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Essential Utilities is more favorable than NorthWestern.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NorthWestern	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Essential Utilities	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.71

Summary

Essential Utilities beats NorthWestern on 15 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.