WTRG vs. SBS, CWT, AWR, AWK, PNW, AES, EVRG, NI, OGE, and LNT
Should you be buying Essential Utilities stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Essential Utilities include Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (SBS), California Water Service Group (CWT), American States Water (AWR), American Water Works (AWK), Pinnacle West Capital (PNW), AES (AES), Evergy (EVRG), NiSource (NI), OGE Energy (OGE), and Alliant Energy (LNT). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (NYSE:SBS) and Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership and community ranking.
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP received 201 more outperform votes than Essential Utilities when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.27% of users gave Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP an outperform vote while only 29.17% of users gave Essential Utilities an outperform vote.
Essential Utilities has a consensus price target of $43.00, indicating a potential upside of 24.60%. Given Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Essential Utilities is more favorable than Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP.
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP has a beta of 1.23, suggesting that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Essential Utilities has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Essential Utilities has a net margin of 24.26% compared to Essential Utilities' net margin of 12.31%. Essential Utilities' return on equity of 10.45% beat Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP's return on equity.
10.6% of Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.8% of Essential Utilities shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Essential Utilities shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Essential Utilities had 7 more articles in the media than Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Essential Utilities and 3 mentions for Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP. Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP's average media sentiment score of 1.32 beat Essential Utilities' score of 0.87 indicating that Essential Utilities is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP pays an annual dividend of $0.23 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Essential Utilities pays an annual dividend of $1.23 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP pays out 26.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Essential Utilities pays out 66.1% 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. Essential Utilities has raised its dividend for 31 consecutive years. Essential Utilities is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP has higher revenue and earnings than Essential Utilities. Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Essential Utilities, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Essential Utilities beats Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding WTRG and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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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