Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL (NYSE:ELP) and CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) are both utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, risk, institutional ownership and profitability.
Dividends
Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL pays an annual dividend of $0.51 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. CenterPoint Energy pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL pays out 31.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CenterPoint Energy pays out 35.8% 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. CenterPoint Energy has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Volatility & Risk
Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL has a beta of 0.73, meaning that its stock price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CenterPoint Energy has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL and CenterPoint Energy, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
|---|
| Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3.00 |
| CenterPoint Energy | 0 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 2.47 |
CenterPoint Energy has a consensus target price of $21.4667, indicating a potential upside of 3.90%. Given CenterPoint Energy's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe CenterPoint Energy is more favorable than Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL and CenterPoint Energy's gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
|---|
| Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL | $3.95 billion | 0.75 | $504.25 million | $1.60 | 6.78 |
| CenterPoint Energy | $12.30 billion | 0.93 | $791 million | $1.79 | 11.54 |
CenterPoint Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL. Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CenterPoint Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL and CenterPoint Energy's net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
|---|
| Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL | 18.43% | 16.92% | 7.73% |
| CenterPoint Energy | -9.49% | 14.78% | 2.62% |
Institutional & Insider Ownership
91.1% of CenterPoint Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of CenterPoint Energy shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
CenterPoint Energy beats Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
