ALLETE (ALE) Competitors

Pinnacle West Capital (NYSE:PNW) and ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) are both utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, community ranking, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations and media sentiment.

Is PNW or ALE a better dividend stock?

Pinnacle West Capital pays an annual dividend of $3.58 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. ALLETE pays an annual dividend of $2.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Pinnacle West Capital pays out 68.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. ALLETE pays out 94.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. ALLETE has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years. ALLETE is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer PNW or ALE?

Pinnacle West Capital received 105 more outperform votes than ALLETE when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 49.57% of users gave ALLETE an outperform vote while only 41.66% of users gave Pinnacle West Capital an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Pinnacle West Capital	Outperform Votes 392 41.66%	Underperform Votes 549 58.34%
ALLETE	Outperform Votes 287 49.57%	Underperform Votes 292 50.43%

Do analysts prefer PNW or ALE?

Pinnacle West Capital presently has a consensus target price of $95.50, suggesting a potential upside of 2.19%. ALLETE has a consensus target price of $67.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.61%. Given ALLETE's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe ALLETE is more favorable than Pinnacle West Capital.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pinnacle West Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
ALLETE	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Is PNW or ALE more profitable?

Pinnacle West Capital has a net margin of 12.26% compared to ALLETE's net margin of 11.72%. Pinnacle West Capital's return on equity of 9.60% beat ALLETE's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pinnacle West Capital	12.26%	9.60%	2.43%
ALLETE	11.72%	5.97%	3.03%

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, PNW or ALE?

Pinnacle West Capital has higher revenue and earnings than ALLETE. Pinnacle West Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ALLETE, 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
Pinnacle West Capital	$5.12B	2.17	$501.56M	$5.22	17.90
ALLETE	$1.53B	2.47	$179.30M	$3.10	21.06

Does the media prefer PNW or ALE?

In the previous week, Pinnacle West Capital had 10 more articles in the media than ALLETE. MarketBeat recorded 24 mentions for Pinnacle West Capital and 14 mentions for ALLETE. ALLETE's average media sentiment score of 1.56 beat Pinnacle West Capital's score of 1.30 indicating that ALLETE is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Pinnacle West Capital	11 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	5 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
ALLETE	12 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Which has more risk & volatility, PNW or ALE?

Pinnacle West Capital has a beta of 0.42, meaning that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ALLETE has a beta of 0.69, meaning that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of PNW or ALE?

91.5% of Pinnacle West Capital shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.6% of ALLETE shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Pinnacle West Capital shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of ALLETE shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

ALLETE beats Pinnacle West Capital on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.