Southwest Gas (SWX) Competitors

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) and UGI (NYSE:UGI) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and media sentiment.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of SWX or UGI?

92.8% of Southwest Gas shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.3% of UGI shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Southwest Gas shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of UGI shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate SWX or UGI?

Southwest Gas presently has a consensus target price of $74.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.11%. UGI has a consensus target price of $31.33, indicating a potential downside of 11.92%. Given Southwest Gas' higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Southwest Gas is more favorable than UGI.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Southwest Gas	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20
UGI	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Is SWX or UGI a better dividend stock?

Southwest Gas pays an annual dividend of $2.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. UGI pays an annual dividend of $1.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Southwest Gas pays out 79.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. UGI pays out 61.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. UGI has increased its dividend for 37 consecutive years. UGI is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Is SWX or UGI more profitable?

UGI has a net margin of 7.73% compared to Southwest Gas' net margin of 3.44%. UGI's return on equity of 15.19% beat Southwest Gas' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southwest Gas	3.44%	5.99%	1.76%
UGI	7.73%	15.19%	4.54%

Which has more risk and volatility, SWX or UGI?

Southwest Gas has a beta of 0.48, indicating that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UGI has a beta of 1.05, indicating that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to SWX or UGI?

In the previous week, UGI had 11 more articles in the media than Southwest Gas. MarketBeat recorded 24 mentions for UGI and 13 mentions for Southwest Gas. Southwest Gas' average media sentiment score of 1.09 beat UGI's score of 0.80 indicating that Southwest Gas is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Southwest Gas	8 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
UGI	11 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, SWX or UGI?

UGI has higher revenue and earnings than Southwest Gas. UGI is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southwest Gas, 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
Southwest Gas	$4.83B	1.03	$150.89M	$3.11	22.21
UGI	$7.32B	1.04	$269M	$2.43	14.64

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer SWX or UGI?

Southwest Gas received 55 more outperform votes than UGI when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 53.94% of users gave UGI an outperform vote while only 51.28% of users gave Southwest Gas an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Southwest Gas	Outperform Votes 281 51.28%	Underperform Votes 267 48.72%
UGI	Outperform Votes 226 53.94%	Underperform Votes 193 46.06%

Summary

UGI beats Southwest Gas on 15 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.