XPLR Infrastructure (XIFR) Competitors

XPLR Infrastructure (NYSE:XIFR) and NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) are both energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation, community ranking and media sentiment.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor XIFR or NWE?

XPLR Infrastructure received 375 more outperform votes than NorthWestern Energy Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 57.95% of users gave XPLR Infrastructure an outperform vote while only 41.67% of users gave NorthWestern Energy Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
XPLR Infrastructure	Outperform Votes 390 57.95%	Underperform Votes 283 42.05%
NorthWestern Energy Group	Outperform Votes 15 41.67%	Underperform Votes 21 58.33%

Do analysts prefer XIFR or NWE?

XPLR Infrastructure presently has a consensus price target of $17.64, suggesting a potential upside of 96.69%. NorthWestern Energy Group has a consensus price target of $60.21, suggesting a potential upside of 8.81%. Given XPLR Infrastructure's higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe XPLR Infrastructure is more favorable than NorthWestern Energy Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
XPLR Infrastructure	2 Sell rating(s)	12 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
NorthWestern Energy Group	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.63

Is XIFR or NWE more profitable?

NorthWestern Energy Group has a net margin of 14.81% compared to XPLR Infrastructure's net margin of -0.73%. NorthWestern Energy Group's return on equity of 7.40% beat XPLR Infrastructure's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
XPLR Infrastructure	-0.73%	1.34%	0.85%
NorthWestern Energy Group	14.81%	7.40%	2.68%

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in XIFR or NWE?

66.0% of XPLR Infrastructure shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of NorthWestern Energy Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of XPLR Infrastructure shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of NorthWestern Energy Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is XIFR or NWE a better dividend stock?

XPLR Infrastructure pays an annual dividend of $3.67 per share and has a dividend yield of 40.9%. NorthWestern Energy Group pays an annual dividend of $2.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. XPLR Infrastructure pays out -193.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NorthWestern Energy Group pays out 68.8% 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. NorthWestern Energy Group has increased its dividend for 21 consecutive years. XPLR Infrastructure is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the media favor XIFR or NWE?

In the previous week, NorthWestern Energy Group had 4 more articles in the media than XPLR Infrastructure. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for NorthWestern Energy Group and 2 mentions for XPLR Infrastructure. NorthWestern Energy Group's average media sentiment score of 1.77 beat XPLR Infrastructure's score of 0.09 indicating that NorthWestern Energy Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
XPLR Infrastructure	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
NorthWestern Energy Group	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, XIFR or NWE?

NorthWestern Energy Group has higher revenue and earnings than XPLR Infrastructure. XPLR Infrastructure is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NorthWestern 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
XPLR Infrastructure	$1.26B	0.67	-$10M	-$1.90	-4.72
NorthWestern Energy Group	$1.51B	2.26	$224.11M	$3.84	14.41

Which has more risk and volatility, XIFR or NWE?

XPLR Infrastructure has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NorthWestern Energy Group has a beta of 0.4, meaning that its stock price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

NorthWestern Energy Group beats XPLR Infrastructure on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.