Unitil (UTL) Competitors

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) and MGE Energy (NASDAQ:MGEE) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, community ranking, dividends, profitability, valuation, risk, media sentiment and analyst recommendations.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor UTL or MGEE?

Unitil received 122 more outperform votes than MGE Energy when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.68% of users gave Unitil an outperform vote while only 54.14% of users gave MGE Energy an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Unitil	Outperform Votes 338 61.68%	Underperform Votes 210 38.32%
MGE Energy	Outperform Votes 216 54.14%	Underperform Votes 183 45.86%

Is UTL or MGEE a better dividend stock?

Unitil pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. MGE Energy pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Unitil pays out 61.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MGE Energy pays out 50.8% 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. Unitil has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years and MGE Energy has raised its dividend for 49 consecutive years.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, UTL or MGEE?

MGE Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Unitil. Unitil is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MGE 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
Unitil	$486.90M	1.78	$47.10M	$2.93	18.18
MGE Energy	$704.58M	4.62	$117.70M	$3.54	25.18

Is UTL or MGEE more profitable?

MGE Energy has a net margin of 17.70% compared to Unitil's net margin of 9.52%. MGE Energy's return on equity of 10.18% beat Unitil's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Unitil	9.52%	9.36%	2.75%
MGE Energy	17.70%	10.18%	4.38%

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in UTL or MGEE?

76.8% of Unitil shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.6% of MGE Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.0% of Unitil shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of MGE Energy shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more risk & volatility, UTL or MGEE?

Unitil has a beta of 0.65, meaning that its stock price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MGE Energy has a beta of 0.78, meaning that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor UTL or MGEE?

In the previous week, Unitil had 1 more articles in the media than MGE Energy. MarketBeat recorded 2 mentions for Unitil and 1 mentions for MGE Energy. MGE Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.89 beat Unitil's score of 1.14 indicating that MGE Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Unitil	Positive
MGE Energy	Very Positive

Do analysts prefer UTL or MGEE?

Unitil currently has a consensus target price of $55.00, indicating a potential upside of 3.25%. MGE Energy has a consensus target price of $74.00, indicating a potential downside of 16.99%. Given Unitil's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Unitil is more favorable than MGE Energy.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Unitil	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
MGE Energy	2 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.00

Summary

MGE Energy beats Unitil on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.