UGI vs. MDU, NFG, IDA, SWX, POR, NJR, BEP, ENIC, AQN, and ELP
Should you be buying UGI stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of UGI include MDU Resources Group (MDU), National Fuel Gas (NFG), IDACORP (IDA), Southwest Gas (SWX), Portland General Electric (POR), New Jersey Resources (NJR), Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP), Enel Chile (ENIC), Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN), and Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL (ELP). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
MDU Resources Group (NYSE:MDU) and UGI (NYSE:UGI) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, community ranking, risk, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.
MDU Resources Group has a net margin of 8.35% compared to MDU Resources Group's net margin of -5.48%. MDU Resources Group's return on equity of 14.09% beat UGI's return on equity.
71.4% of MDU Resources Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.3% of UGI shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of MDU Resources Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of UGI shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
MDU Resources Group has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UGI has a beta of 1.16, suggesting that its stock price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.
UGI has a consensus target price of $27.50, suggesting a potential upside of 7.30%. Given MDU Resources Group's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe UGI is more favorable than MDU Resources Group.
MDU Resources Group has higher earnings, but lower revenue than UGI. UGI is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MDU Resources Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
MDU Resources Group pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. UGI pays an annual dividend of $1.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.9%. MDU Resources Group pays out 24.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. UGI pays out -68.2% 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. UGI has raised its dividend for 36 consecutive years. UGI is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
In the previous week, UGI had 9 more articles in the media than MDU Resources Group. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for UGI and 4 mentions for MDU Resources Group. UGI's average media sentiment score of 0.77 beat MDU Resources Group's score of 0.56 indicating that MDU Resources Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.
MDU Resources Group received 49 more outperform votes than UGI when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.70% of users gave MDU Resources Group an outperform vote while only 53.79% of users gave UGI an outperform vote.
Summary
MDU Resources Group beats UGI on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UGI 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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