NRG vs. DUK, ED, VST, AES, ORA, GNE, SO, NGG, AEP, and D
Should you be buying NRG Energy stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of NRG Energy include Duke Energy (DUK), Consolidated Edison (ED), Vistra (VST), AES (AES), Ormat Technologies (ORA), Genie Energy (GNE), Southern (SO), National Grid Transco (NGG), American Electric Power (AEP), and Dominion Energy (D).
NRG Energy vs. Its Competitors
Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) and NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and earnings.
Duke Energy has a beta of 0.39, meaning that its share price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NRG Energy has a beta of 1.17, meaning that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Duke Energy pays an annual dividend of $4.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. NRG Energy pays an annual dividend of $1.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Duke Energy pays out 69.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NRG Energy pays out 79.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Duke Energy has increased its dividend for 20 consecutive years and NRG Energy has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Duke Energy is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Duke Energy has higher revenue and earnings than NRG Energy. Duke Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NRG Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Duke Energy currently has a consensus price target of $130.62, indicating a potential upside of 7.10%. NRG Energy has a consensus price target of $186.92, indicating a potential upside of 13.24%. Given NRG Energy's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe NRG Energy is more favorable than Duke Energy.
In the previous week, Duke Energy had 27 more articles in the media than NRG Energy. MarketBeat recorded 52 mentions for Duke Energy and 25 mentions for NRG Energy. NRG Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.48 beat Duke Energy's score of 1.28 indicating that NRG Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
65.3% of Duke Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.7% of NRG Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Duke Energy shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of NRG Energy shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Duke Energy has a net margin of 15.51% compared to NRG Energy's net margin of 1.78%. NRG Energy's return on equity of 88.22% beat Duke Energy's return on equity.
Summary
NRG Energy beats Duke Energy on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding NRG 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.
NRG Energy Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:NRG) was last updated on 9/14/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
