ED vs. WEC, PEG, PCG, AEE, CMS, NI, XEL, EXC, LNT, and DUK
Should you be buying Consolidated Edison stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Consolidated Edison include WEC Energy Group (WEC), Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG), PG&E (PCG), Ameren (AEE), CMS Energy (CMS), NiSource (NI), Xcel Energy (XEL), Exelon (EXC), Alliant Energy (LNT), and Duke Energy (DUK). These companies are all part of the "electric & other services combined" industry.
Consolidated Edison vs.
WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) and Consolidated Edison (NYSE:ED) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, media sentiment, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, community ranking and dividends.
74.1% of WEC Energy Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.0% of Consolidated Edison shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of WEC Energy Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Consolidated Edison shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
WEC Energy Group currently has a consensus target price of $98.78, indicating a potential upside of 5.96%. Consolidated Edison has a consensus target price of $89.92, indicating a potential downside of 4.73%. Given WEC Energy Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe WEC Energy Group is more favorable than Consolidated Edison.
WEC Energy Group pays an annual dividend of $3.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Consolidated Edison pays an annual dividend of $3.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. WEC Energy Group pays out 70.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Consolidated Edison pays out 69.4% 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. WEC Energy Group has increased its dividend for 19 consecutive years and Consolidated Edison has increased its dividend for 50 consecutive years. Consolidated Edison is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
WEC Energy Group received 35 more outperform votes than Consolidated Edison when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 54.74% of users gave WEC Energy Group an outperform vote while only 43.20% of users gave Consolidated Edison an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Consolidated Edison had 5 more articles in the media than WEC Energy Group. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for Consolidated Edison and 17 mentions for WEC Energy Group. Consolidated Edison's average media sentiment score of 0.73 beat WEC Energy Group's score of 0.57 indicating that Consolidated Edison is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
WEC Energy Group has a net margin of 14.68% compared to Consolidated Edison's net margin of 10.59%. WEC Energy Group's return on equity of 12.24% beat Consolidated Edison's return on equity.
WEC Energy Group has a beta of 0.38, meaning that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Consolidated Edison has a beta of 0.35, meaning that its stock price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Consolidated Edison has higher revenue and earnings than WEC Energy Group. Consolidated Edison is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WEC Energy Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
WEC Energy Group beats Consolidated Edison on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ED and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartMedia Sentiment Over Time
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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Consolidated Edison Competitors List