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Unitil (UTL) Competitors

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$51.69 -0.08 (-0.15%)
As of 03:58 PM Eastern

UTL vs. AVA, BKH, CPK, NJR, NWE, OGE, OGS, POR, SR, and OTTR

Should you be buying Unitil stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Unitil include Avista (AVA), Black Hills (BKH), Chesapeake Utilities (CPK), NewJersey Resources (NJR), NorthWestern Energy Group (NWE), OGE Energy (OGE), ONE Gas (OGS), Portland General Electric (POR), Spire (SR), and Otter Tail (OTTR). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.

Unitil vs. Its Competitors

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

Avista has higher revenue and earnings than Unitil. Avista is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Unitil, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Unitil$486.90M1.73$47.10M$2.9317.64
Avista$1.94B1.58$180M$2.3416.24

Unitil has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Avista has a beta of 0.4, indicating that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Unitil pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Avista pays an annual dividend of $1.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. Unitil pays out 61.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Avista pays out 83.8% 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.

Unitil presently has a consensus price target of $55.00, indicating a potential upside of 6.40%. Avista has a consensus price target of $38.00, indicating a potential upside of 0.00%. Given Unitil's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly 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

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 large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Unitil has a net margin of 9.74% compared to Avista's net margin of 9.63%. Unitil's return on equity of 9.49% beat Avista's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Unitil9.74% 9.49% 2.74%
Avista 9.63%7.28%2.39%

In the previous week, Unitil and Unitil both had 1 articles in the media. Avista's average media sentiment score of 0.88 beat Unitil's score of 0.00 indicating that Avista is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

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

Summary

Unitil beats Avista on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UTL and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

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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UTL vs. The Competition

MetricUnitilUTIL IndustryUtilities SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$840.48M$24.33B$15.71B$20.45B
Dividend Yield3.43%3.69%5.58%3.72%
P/E Ratio17.6434.8320.0927.80
Price / Sales1.733.9729.2349.81
Price / Cash6.869.0119.3118.22
Price / Book1.632.202.144.58
Net Income$47.10M$1.43B$751.09M$982.91M
7 Day Performance-1.85%-1.53%-0.51%1.31%
1 Month Performance-2.04%1.71%2.29%4.85%
1 Year Performance0.49%22.20%16.45%14.09%

Unitil Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
UTL
Unitil
2.0493 of 5 stars
$51.69
-0.2%
$55.00
+6.4%
+1.3%$840.48M$486.90M17.64520
AVA
Avista
3.8963 of 5 stars
$38.13
-0.6%
$38.00
-0.3%
+12.9%$3.09B$1.94B16.291,950
BKH
Black Hills
4.2501 of 5 stars
$56.42
-0.9%
$66.00
+17.0%
+5.0%$4.13B$2.13B14.392,841
CPK
Chesapeake Utilities
3.9571 of 5 stars
$121.61
-1.2%
$126.50
+4.0%
+14.3%$2.87B$787.20M22.481,200News Coverage
NJR
NewJersey Resources
4.0551 of 5 stars
$45.15
-0.5%
$51.29
+13.6%
+6.8%$4.55B$1.80B10.961,372
NWE
NorthWestern Energy Group
3.3917 of 5 stars
$51.97
-1.0%
$60.00
+15.5%
+6.1%$3.19B$1.51B14.241,573Positive News
OGE
OGE Energy
3.9854 of 5 stars
$43.99
-1.1%
$46.80
+6.4%
+23.8%$8.96B$2.99B18.182,291Positive News
OGS
ONE Gas
2.6244 of 5 stars
$72.70
-0.3%
$77.64
+6.8%
+16.1%$4.37B$2.08B17.563,900
POR
Portland General Electric
3.7385 of 5 stars
$40.90
-0.8%
$45.60
+11.5%
-3.7%$4.51B$3.44B14.402,915
SR
Spire
3.4293 of 5 stars
$73.93
-0.2%
$77.40
+4.7%
+23.7%$4.37B$2.43B18.213,475
OTTR
Otter Tail
1.3571 of 5 stars
$78.83
-1.1%
$83.00
+5.3%
-8.1%$3.34B$1.32B11.232,133

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This page (NYSE:UTL) was last updated on 7/8/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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