WEC Energy Group (WEC) Competitors

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) and WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, media sentiment, profitability, dividends, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Is SRE or WEC a better dividend stock?

Sempra pays an annual dividend of $2.58 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. WEC Energy Group pays an annual dividend of $3.57 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Sempra pays out 58.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WEC Energy Group pays out 73.9% 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. Sempra has raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years and WEC Energy Group has raised its dividend for 23 consecutive years. Sempra is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do analysts rate SRE or WEC?

Sempra presently has a consensus price target of $80.54, suggesting a potential upside of 8.45%. WEC Energy Group has a consensus price target of $105.38, suggesting a potential downside of 3.82%. Given Sempra's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Sempra is more favorable than WEC Energy Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sempra	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.57
WEC Energy Group	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.38

Is SRE or WEC more profitable?

Sempra has a net margin of 22.63% compared to WEC Energy Group's net margin of 17.75%. WEC Energy Group's return on equity of 12.39% beat Sempra's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sempra	22.63%	8.06%	3.04%
WEC Energy Group	17.75%	12.39%	3.41%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer SRE or WEC?

Sempra received 61 more outperform votes than WEC Energy Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.29% of users gave Sempra an outperform vote while only 51.80% of users gave WEC Energy Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Sempra	Outperform Votes 492 60.29%	Underperform Votes 324 39.71%
WEC Energy Group	Outperform Votes 431 51.80%	Underperform Votes 401 48.20%

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of SRE or WEC?

89.7% of Sempra shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.2% of WEC Energy Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Sempra shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of WEC Energy Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, SRE or WEC?

Sempra has higher revenue and earnings than WEC Energy Group. Sempra is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WEC Energy Group, 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
Sempra	$13.19B	3.67	$3.08B	$4.42	16.80
WEC Energy Group	$8.60B	4.07	$1.53B	$4.83	22.68

Does the media refer more to SRE or WEC?

In the previous week, WEC Energy Group had 7 more articles in the media than Sempra. MarketBeat recorded 29 mentions for WEC Energy Group and 22 mentions for Sempra. WEC Energy Group's average media sentiment score of 1.55 beat Sempra's score of 1.16 indicating that WEC Energy Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Sempra	17 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
WEC Energy Group	21 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, SRE or WEC?

Sempra has a beta of 0.65, suggesting that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WEC Energy Group has a beta of 0.44, suggesting that its share price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Sempra beats WEC Energy Group on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.