NI vs. CMS, AVA, AEE, PEG, WEC, ED, PCG, LNT, ALE, and NWE
Should you be buying NiSource stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of NiSource include CMS Energy (CMS), Avista (AVA), Ameren (AEE), Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG), WEC Energy Group (WEC), Consolidated Edison (ED), PG&E (PCG), Alliant Energy (LNT), ALLETE (ALE), and NorthWestern (NWE). These companies are all part of the "electric & other services combined" industry.
NiSource vs.
NiSource (NYSE:NI) and CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, earnings, media sentiment, community ranking and analyst recommendations.
NiSource has a net margin of 13.51% compared to CMS Energy's net margin of 9.74%. CMS Energy's return on equity of 11.57% beat NiSource's return on equity.
92.6% of NiSource shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.2% of CMS Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of NiSource shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of CMS Energy shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
NiSource pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. CMS Energy pays an annual dividend of $1.95 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. NiSource pays out 58.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CMS Energy pays out 68.4% 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. NiSource is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
NiSource has a beta of 0.46, meaning that its stock price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CMS Energy has a beta of 0.34, meaning that its stock price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, CMS Energy had 8 more articles in the media than NiSource. MarketBeat recorded 19 mentions for CMS Energy and 11 mentions for NiSource. CMS Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.16 beat NiSource's score of 0.70 indicating that CMS Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
CMS Energy received 121 more outperform votes than NiSource when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.24% of users gave CMS Energy an outperform vote while only 55.27% of users gave NiSource an outperform vote.
CMS Energy has higher revenue and earnings than NiSource. NiSource is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CMS Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
NiSource currently has a consensus price target of $29.17, indicating a potential upside of 9.03%. CMS Energy has a consensus price target of $66.80, indicating a potential upside of 10.54%. Given CMS Energy's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe CMS Energy is more favorable than NiSource.
Summary
CMS Energy beats NiSource on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding NI and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media 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.
NiSource Competitors List
