XEL vs. DUK, PCG, PEG, EXC, ED, WEC, AEE, CMS, LNT, and NI
Should you be buying Xcel Energy stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Xcel Energy include Duke Energy (DUK), PG&E (PCG), Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG), Exelon (EXC), Consolidated Edison (ED), WEC Energy Group (WEC), Ameren (AEE), CMS Energy (CMS), Alliant Energy (LNT), and NiSource (NI). These companies are all part of the "electric & other services combined" industry.
Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) and Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, media sentiment, earnings, profitability and dividends.
Xcel Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.19 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Duke Energy pays an annual dividend of $4.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Xcel Energy pays out 65.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Duke Energy pays out 103.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Xcel Energy is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
In the previous week, Duke Energy had 7 more articles in the media than Xcel Energy. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for Duke Energy and 21 mentions for Xcel Energy. Xcel Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.14 beat Duke Energy's score of 0.83 indicating that Xcel Energy is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Duke Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Xcel Energy. Xcel Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Duke Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Xcel Energy has a net margin of 13.36% compared to Duke Energy's net margin of 10.78%. Xcel Energy's return on equity of 11.03% beat Duke Energy's return on equity.
Xcel Energy has a beta of 0.37, suggesting that its stock price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Duke Energy has a beta of 0.45, suggesting that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.
78.4% of Xcel Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.3% of Duke Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Xcel Energy shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Duke Energy shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Xcel Energy currently has a consensus target price of $62.00, indicating a potential upside of 8.09%. Duke Energy has a consensus target price of $102.58, indicating a potential downside of 5.04%. Given Xcel Energy's higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Xcel Energy is more favorable than Duke Energy.
Duke Energy received 568 more outperform votes than Xcel Energy when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 53.75% of users gave Duke Energy an outperform vote while only 28.33% of users gave Xcel Energy an outperform vote.
Summary
Duke Energy beats Xcel Energy 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 XEL 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 NASDAQ 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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