ONE Gas (OGS) Competitors

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) and ONE Gas (NYSE:OGS) are both utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, profitability, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership and media sentiment.

Is LNT or OGS more profitable?

Alliant Energy has a net margin of 18.26% compared to ONE Gas' net margin of 10.63%. Alliant Energy's return on equity of 12.01% beat ONE Gas' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alliant Energy	18.26%	12.01%	3.71%
ONE Gas	10.63%	8.07%	2.99%

Which has more risk & volatility, LNT or OGS?

Alliant Energy has a beta of 0.53, indicating that its share price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ONE Gas has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of LNT or OGS?

79.9% of Alliant Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.7% of ONE Gas shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Alliant Energy shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of ONE Gas shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is LNT or OGS a better dividend stock?

Alliant Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. ONE Gas pays an annual dividend of $2.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Alliant Energy pays out 70.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. ONE Gas pays out 64.0% 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 ONE Gas has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. ONE Gas is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do analysts recommend LNT or OGS?

Alliant Energy currently has a consensus target price of $64.23, indicating a potential downside of 2.86%. ONE Gas has a consensus target price of $77.64, indicating a potential upside of 3.55%. Given ONE Gas' higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe ONE Gas 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)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.36
ONE Gas	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.29

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, LNT or OGS?

Alliant Energy has higher revenue and earnings than ONE Gas. ONE Gas 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	4.27	$690M	$2.90	22.80
ONE Gas	$2.08B	2.16	$222.85M	$4.19	17.90

Does the media favor LNT or OGS?

In the previous week, Alliant Energy had 2 more articles in the media than ONE Gas. MarketBeat recorded 14 mentions for Alliant Energy and 12 mentions for ONE Gas. Alliant Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.55 beat ONE Gas' score of 0.74 indicating that Alliant Energy is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Alliant Energy	11 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
ONE Gas	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Alliant Energy beats ONE Gas on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.