Southwest Gas (SWX) Competitors

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) and Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, risk, community ranking, dividends, media sentiment, institutional ownership and valuation.

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

90.2% of Atmos Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.8% of Southwest Gas shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Atmos Energy shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Southwest Gas shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility & risk, ATO or SWX?

Atmos Energy has a beta of 0.67, suggesting that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southwest Gas has a beta of 0.37, suggesting that its stock price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor ATO or SWX?

Atmos Energy received 196 more outperform votes than Southwest Gas when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.22% of users gave Atmos Energy an outperform vote while only 51.49% of users gave Southwest Gas an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Atmos Energy	Outperform Votes 472 64.22%	Underperform Votes 263 35.78%
Southwest Gas	Outperform Votes 276 51.49%	Underperform Votes 260 48.51%

Does the media refer more to ATO or SWX?

In the previous week, Atmos Energy had 9 more articles in the media than Southwest Gas. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Atmos Energy and 3 mentions for Southwest Gas. Atmos Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.10 beat Southwest Gas' score of 0.95 indicating that Southwest Gas is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Atmos Energy	8 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Southwest Gas	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is ATO or SWX a better dividend stock?

Atmos Energy pays an annual dividend of $3.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Southwest Gas pays an annual dividend of $2.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Atmos Energy pays out 48.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. 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. Atmos Energy has increased its dividend for 40 consecutive years and Southwest Gas has increased its dividend for 17 consecutive years.

Do analysts prefer ATO or SWX?

Atmos Energy currently has a consensus price target of $128.67, suggesting a potential upside of 1.95%. Southwest Gas has a consensus price target of $75.00, suggesting a potential downside of 1.19%. Given Southwest Gas' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Atmos Energy is more favorable than Southwest Gas.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Atmos Energy	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67
Southwest Gas	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, ATO or SWX?

Atmos Energy has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Southwest Gas. Atmos Energy 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
Atmos Energy	$4.06B	4.69	$885.86M	$6.67	18.92
Southwest Gas	$5.43B	1.00	$150.89M	$2.67	28.43

Is ATO or SWX more profitable?

Atmos Energy has a net margin of 24.65% compared to Atmos Energy's net margin of 3.56%. Southwest Gas' return on equity of 9.01% beat Atmos Energy's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Atmos Energy	24.65%	9.01%	4.35%
Southwest Gas	3.56%	6.71%	1.86%

Summary

Atmos Energy beats Southwest Gas on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.