NWN vs. SWX, NFG, UGI, NJR, CPK, OKE, ATO, NFE, UGP, and OGS
Should you be buying Northwest Natural stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Northwest Natural include Southwest Gas (SWX), National Fuel Gas (NFG), UGI (UGI), New Jersey Resources (NJR), Chesapeake Utilities (CPK), ONEOK (OKE), Atmos Energy (ATO), New Fortress Energy (NFE), Ultrapar Participações (UGP), and ONE Gas (OGS).
Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) and Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, valuation and profitability.
92.8% of Southwest Gas shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.1% of Northwest Natural shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Southwest Gas shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Northwest Natural shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Southwest Gas currently has a consensus price target of $75.00, indicating a potential downside of 1.19%. Northwest Natural has a consensus price target of $41.40, indicating a potential upside of 1.66%. Given Southwest Gas' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Northwest Natural is more favorable than Southwest Gas.
Southwest Gas pays an annual dividend of $2.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Northwest Natural pays an annual dividend of $1.95 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Southwest Gas pays out 92.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Northwest Natural pays out 85.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Southwest Gas has raised its dividend for 17 consecutive years and Northwest Natural has raised its dividend for 69 consecutive years. Northwest Natural is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
In the previous week, Northwest Natural had 1 more articles in the media than Southwest Gas. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Northwest Natural and 3 mentions for Southwest Gas. Southwest Gas' average media sentiment score of 1.55 beat Northwest Natural's score of 1.10 indicating that Northwest Natural is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Southwest Gas received 3 more outperform votes than Northwest Natural when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 52.00% of users gave Northwest Natural an outperform vote while only 51.49% of users gave Southwest Gas an outperform vote.
Southwest Gas has a beta of 0.37, suggesting that its share price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Northwest Natural has a beta of 0.57, suggesting that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Southwest Gas has higher revenue and earnings than Northwest Natural. Northwest Natural is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southwest Gas, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Northwest Natural has a net margin of 7.36% compared to Northwest Natural's net margin of 3.56%. Southwest Gas' return on equity of 6.76% beat Northwest Natural's return on equity.
Summary
Northwest Natural beats Southwest Gas on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding NWN 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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