CPK vs. SWX, NFG, UGI, NJR, NWN, OKE, ATO, NEXT, CTRI, and RGCO
Should you be buying Chesapeake Utilities stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Chesapeake Utilities include Southwest Gas (SWX), National Fuel Gas (NFG), UGI (UGI), New Jersey Resources (NJR), Northwest Natural (NWN), ONEOK (OKE), Atmos Energy (ATO), NextDecade (NEXT), Centuri (CTRI), and RGC Resources (RGCO).
Chesapeake Utilities (NYSE:CPK) and Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, media sentiment, community ranking, dividends, risk and profitability.
83.1% of Chesapeake Utilities shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.8% of Southwest Gas shares are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of Chesapeake Utilities shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Southwest Gas shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Chesapeake Utilities has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southwest Gas has a beta of 0.37, indicating that its share price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Chesapeake Utilities presently has a consensus target price of $109.80, suggesting a potential downside of 8.19%. Southwest Gas has a consensus target price of $75.00, suggesting a potential downside of 1.19%. Given Southwest Gas' higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Southwest Gas is more favorable than Chesapeake Utilities.
Chesapeake Utilities pays an annual dividend of $2.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Southwest Gas pays an annual dividend of $2.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Chesapeake Utilities pays out 53.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Southwest Gas pays out 92.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.
Chesapeake Utilities received 60 more outperform votes than Southwest Gas when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.76% of users gave Chesapeake Utilities an outperform vote while only 51.49% of users gave Southwest Gas an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Chesapeake Utilities had 2 more articles in the media than Southwest Gas. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Chesapeake Utilities and 3 mentions for Southwest Gas. Southwest Gas' average media sentiment score of 1.10 beat Chesapeake Utilities' score of 0.66 indicating that Southwest Gas is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Southwest Gas has higher revenue and earnings than Chesapeake Utilities. Chesapeake Utilities is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southwest Gas, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Chesapeake Utilities has a net margin of 13.90% compared to Southwest Gas' net margin of 3.56%. Chesapeake Utilities' return on equity of 10.17% beat Southwest Gas' return on equity.
Summary
Chesapeake Utilities beats Southwest Gas on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding CPK 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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