Unitil (UTL) Competitors

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) and Avista (NYSE:AVA) are both utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment, risk and dividends.

Do analysts recommend UTL or AVA?

Unitil presently has a consensus target price of $55.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.21%. Avista has a consensus target price of $38.00, indicating a potential upside of 4.98%. Given Unitil's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Unitil is more favorable than Avista.

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
Avista	1 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.50

Does the media prefer UTL or AVA?

In the previous week, Avista had 4 more articles in the media than Unitil. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Avista and 5 mentions for Unitil. Avista's average media sentiment score of 1.26 beat Unitil's score of 0.84 indicating that Avista is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Unitil	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Avista	7 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, UTL or AVA?

Avista has higher revenue and earnings than Unitil. Unitil is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Avista, 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	$494.80M	1.61	$47.10M	$2.91	15.47
Avista	$1.94B	1.51	$180M	$2.22	16.31

Is UTL or AVA more profitable?

Unitil has a net margin of 9.54% compared to Avista's net margin of 9.13%. Unitil's return on equity of 9.46% beat Avista's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Unitil	9.54%	9.46%	2.69%
Avista	9.13%	6.86%	2.25%

Which has more risk and volatility, UTL or AVA?

Unitil has a beta of 0.68, suggesting that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Avista has a beta of 0.41, suggesting that its stock price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in UTL or AVA?

76.8% of Unitil shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.2% of Avista shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.0% of Unitil shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Avista shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is UTL or AVA a better dividend stock?

Unitil pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Avista pays an annual dividend of $1.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Unitil pays out 61.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Avista pays out 88.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Unitil has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years and Avista has increased its dividend for 23 consecutive years. Avista is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Unitil beats Avista on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.