NWE vs. AVA, ALE, UTL, EVRG, NI, MYRG, SR, PRMW, MGEE, and PNM
Should you be buying NorthWestern Energy Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of NorthWestern Energy Group include Avista (AVA), ALLETE (ALE), Unitil (UTL), Evergy (EVRG), NiSource (NI), MYR Group (MYRG), Spire (SR), Primo Water (PRMW), MGE Energy (MGEE), and PNM Resources (PNM). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
Avista (NYSE:AVA) and NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, community ranking and valuation.
In the previous week, Avista and Avista both had 3 articles in the media. Avista's average media sentiment score of 0.81 beat NorthWestern Energy Group's score of 0.17 indicating that NorthWestern Energy Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
85.2% of Avista shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of NorthWestern Energy Group shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Avista shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of NorthWestern Energy Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
NorthWestern Energy Group has a net margin of 13.64% compared to NorthWestern Energy Group's net margin of 9.77%. Avista's return on equity of 7.23% beat NorthWestern Energy Group's return on equity.
Avista has a beta of 0.5, meaning that its stock price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NorthWestern Energy Group has a beta of 0.43, meaning that its stock price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Avista currently has a consensus target price of $33.50, suggesting a potential downside of 0.68%. NorthWestern Energy Group has a consensus target price of $51.71, suggesting a potential upside of 6.58%. Given Avista's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe NorthWestern Energy Group is more favorable than Avista.
Avista pays an annual dividend of $1.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.6%. NorthWestern Energy Group pays an annual dividend of $2.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Avista pays out 85.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. NorthWestern Energy Group pays out 80.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Avista has increased its dividend for 22 consecutive years and NorthWestern Energy Group has increased its dividend for 19 consecutive years. Avista is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Avista received 233 more outperform votes than NorthWestern Energy Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 48.06% of users gave Avista an outperform vote while only 13.33% of users gave NorthWestern Energy Group an outperform vote.
NorthWestern Energy Group has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Avista. NorthWestern Energy Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Avista, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
NorthWestern Energy Group beats Avista on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding NWE and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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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