AES vs. LNT, NRG, CMS, AEE, CNP, ORA, GNE, MGEE, PCG, and SRE
Should you be buying AES stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of AES include Alliant Energy (LNT), NRG Energy (NRG), CMS Energy (CMS), Ameren (AEE), CenterPoint Energy (CNP), Ormat Technologies (ORA), Genie Energy (GNE), MGE Energy (MGEE), PG&E (PCG), and Sempra (SRE).
AES (NYSE:AES) and Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, earnings, community ranking, profitability, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, risk and institutional ownership.
Alliant Energy has a net margin of 17.53% compared to AES's net margin of 4.40%. AES's return on equity of 36.23% beat Alliant Energy's return on equity.
AES currently has a consensus price target of $22.50, indicating a potential upside of 13.75%. Alliant Energy has a consensus price target of $51.38, indicating a potential upside of 2.48%. Given AES's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe AES is more favorable than Alliant Energy.
93.1% of AES shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.9% of Alliant Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of AES shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Alliant Energy shares are owned by company 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.
Alliant Energy has lower revenue, but higher earnings than AES. Alliant Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AES, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Alliant Energy had 1 more articles in the media than AES. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Alliant Energy and 6 mentions for AES. AES's average media sentiment score of 1.71 beat Alliant Energy's score of 1.35 indicating that AES is being referred to more favorably in the media.
AES pays an annual dividend of $0.69 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Alliant Energy pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. AES pays out 95.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Alliant Energy pays out 69.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Alliant Energy is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
AES received 362 more outperform votes than Alliant Energy when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.60% of users gave AES an outperform vote while only 34.33% of users gave Alliant Energy an outperform vote.
AES has a beta of 1.11, meaning that its share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alliant Energy has a beta of 0.57, meaning that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
AES beats Alliant Energy on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AES 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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