NorthWestern Energy Group (NWE) Competitors

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) and NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, media sentiment, earnings, dividends and risk.

Is LNT or NWE a better dividend stock?

Alliant Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. NorthWestern Energy Group pays an annual dividend of $2.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Alliant Energy pays out 62.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NorthWestern Energy Group pays out 71.9% 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. Alliant Energy has increased its dividend for 22 consecutive years and NorthWestern Energy Group has increased its dividend for 21 consecutive years.

Which has more risk & volatility, LNT or NWE?

Alliant Energy has a beta of 0.53, meaning that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NorthWestern Energy Group has a beta of 0.35, meaning that its stock price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate LNT or NWE?

Alliant Energy currently has a consensus price target of $65.50, indicating a potential upside of 1.21%. NorthWestern Energy Group has a consensus price target of $60.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.07%. Given NorthWestern Energy Group's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe NorthWestern Energy Group is more favorable than Alliant Energy.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alliant Energy	1 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.30
NorthWestern Energy Group	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Which has higher valuation & earnings, LNT or NWE?

Alliant Energy has higher revenue and earnings than NorthWestern Energy Group. NorthWestern Energy Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alliant Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alliant Energy	$3.98B	4.18	$690M	$3.24	19.98
NorthWestern Energy Group	$1.53B	2.25	$224.11M	$3.67	15.27

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in LNT or NWE?

79.9% of Alliant Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of NorthWestern Energy Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Alliant Energy shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of NorthWestern Energy Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is LNT or NWE more profitable?

Alliant Energy has a net margin of 20.07% compared to NorthWestern Energy Group's net margin of 14.81%. Alliant Energy's return on equity of 12.25% beat NorthWestern Energy Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alliant Energy	20.07%	12.25%	3.75%
NorthWestern Energy Group	14.81%	7.40%	2.68%

Does the media prefer LNT or NWE?

In the previous week, Alliant Energy had 21 more articles in the media than NorthWestern Energy Group. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for Alliant Energy and 1 mentions for NorthWestern Energy Group. NorthWestern Energy Group's average media sentiment score of 1.46 beat Alliant Energy's score of 1.31 indicating that NorthWestern Energy Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Alliant Energy	13 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
NorthWestern Energy Group	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Alliant Energy beats NorthWestern Energy Group on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.