AEE vs. CMS, WEC, NI, ED, PEG, PCG, LNT, EVRG, XEL, and EXC
Should you be buying Ameren stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ameren include CMS Energy (CMS), WEC Energy Group (WEC), NiSource (NI), Consolidated Edison (ED), Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG), PG&E (PCG), Alliant Energy (LNT), Evergy (EVRG), Xcel Energy (XEL), and Exelon (EXC). These companies are all part of the "electric & other services combined" industry.
Ameren (NYSE:AEE) and CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, community ranking, profitability, valuation, risk, earnings, media sentiment and dividends.
Ameren has a beta of 0.44, indicating that its share price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CMS Energy has a beta of 0.38, indicating that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Ameren has higher revenue and earnings than CMS Energy. Ameren is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CMS Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Ameren has a net margin of 15.36% compared to CMS Energy's net margin of 11.89%. CMS Energy's return on equity of 12.09% beat Ameren's return on equity.
Ameren currently has a consensus price target of $79.40, indicating a potential upside of 6.28%. CMS Energy has a consensus price target of $63.00, indicating a potential upside of 4.51%. Given Ameren's higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Ameren is more favorable than CMS Energy.
CMS Energy received 198 more outperform votes than Ameren when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.60% of users gave CMS Energy an outperform vote while only 51.26% of users gave Ameren an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Ameren and Ameren both had 21 articles in the media. CMS Energy's average media sentiment score of 0.86 beat Ameren's score of 0.63 indicating that CMS Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Ameren pays an annual dividend of $2.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. CMS Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Ameren pays out 61.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CMS Energy pays out 68.4% 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. Ameren is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
79.1% of Ameren shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.6% of CMS Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Ameren shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of CMS Energy shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
Ameren beats CMS Energy on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AEE 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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