Unitil (UTL) Competitors

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) and ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) are both utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, community ranking, risk, earnings and media sentiment.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in UTL or ALE?

Unitil received 51 more outperform votes than ALLETE when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.68% of users gave Unitil an outperform vote while only 49.57% of users gave ALLETE an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Unitil	Outperform Votes 338 61.68%	Underperform Votes 210 38.32%
ALLETE	Outperform Votes 287 49.57%	Underperform Votes 292 50.43%

Is UTL or ALE a better dividend stock?

Unitil pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. ALLETE pays an annual dividend of $2.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Unitil pays out 61.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. ALLETE pays out 94.2% 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 ALLETE has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years. ALLETE is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Is UTL or ALE more profitable?

ALLETE has a net margin of 11.72% compared to Unitil's net margin of 9.52%. Unitil's return on equity of 9.36% beat ALLETE's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Unitil	9.52%	9.36%	2.75%
ALLETE	11.72%	5.97%	3.03%

Do analysts recommend UTL or ALE?

Unitil presently has a consensus target price of $55.00, suggesting a potential downside of 5.84%. ALLETE has a consensus target price of $67.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.54%. Given ALLETE's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe ALLETE is more favorable than Unitil.

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
ALLETE	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the media favor UTL or ALE?

In the previous week, ALLETE had 10 more articles in the media than Unitil. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for ALLETE and 5 mentions for Unitil. ALLETE's average media sentiment score of 1.56 beat Unitil's score of 0.60 indicating that ALLETE is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Unitil	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
ALLETE	13 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of UTL or ALE?

76.8% of Unitil shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.6% of ALLETE shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.0% of Unitil shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of ALLETE shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more volatility & risk, UTL or ALE?

Unitil has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ALLETE has a beta of 0.69, indicating that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, UTL or ALE?

ALLETE has higher revenue and earnings than Unitil. Unitil is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ALLETE, 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	1.92	$47.10M	$2.93	19.94
ALLETE	$1.53B	2.48	$179.30M	$3.10	21.08

Summary

ALLETE beats Unitil on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.