AES (AES) Competitors

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) and AES (NYSE:AES) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and risk.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of NRG or AES?

97.7% of NRG Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.1% of AES shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of NRG Energy shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of AES shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is NRG or AES more profitable?

AES has a net margin of 10.67% compared to NRG Energy's net margin of 4.66%. NRG Energy's return on equity of 73.78% beat AES's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NRG Energy	4.66%	73.78%	6.59%
AES	10.67%	18.06%	2.80%

Do analysts rate NRG or AES?

NRG Energy currently has a consensus target price of $160.30, indicating a potential upside of 2.38%. AES has a consensus target price of $24.67, indicating a potential upside of 78.81%. Given AES's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe AES is more favorable than NRG Energy.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NRG Energy	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.90
AES	2 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Does the media favor NRG or AES?

In the previous week, NRG Energy had 7 more articles in the media than AES. MarketBeat recorded 33 mentions for NRG Energy and 26 mentions for AES. NRG Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.38 beat AES's score of 0.90 indicating that NRG Energy is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
NRG Energy	25 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
AES	12 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk & volatility, NRG or AES?

NRG Energy has a beta of 1.13, indicating that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AES has a beta of 0.95, indicating that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is NRG or AES a better dividend stock?

NRG Energy pays an annual dividend of $1.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. AES pays an annual dividend of $0.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. NRG Energy pays out 28.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. AES pays out 38.0% 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. NRG Energy has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and AES has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years. AES is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, NRG or AES?

AES has lower revenue, but higher earnings than NRG Energy. AES is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NRG Energy, 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
NRG Energy	$29.29B	1.05	$1.13B	$6.20	25.25
AES	$12.28B	0.80	$1.68B	$1.84	7.50

Summary

NRG Energy beats AES on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.