FE vs. SO, DUK, EIX, ETR, PPL, ES, PNW, OGE, IDA, and POR
Should you be buying FirstEnergy stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of FirstEnergy include Southern (SO), Duke Energy (DUK), Edison International (EIX), Entergy (ETR), PPL (PPL), Eversource Energy (ES), Pinnacle West Capital (PNW), OGE Energy (OGE), IDACORP (IDA), and Portland General Electric (POR). These companies are all part of the "electric utilities" industry.
Southern (NYSE:SO) and FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) 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, community ranking, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, risk, profitability, institutional ownership and earnings.
64.1% of Southern shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.4% of FirstEnergy shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Southern shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of FirstEnergy 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.
FirstEnergy received 63 more outperform votes than Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 56.45% of users gave FirstEnergy an outperform vote while only 49.95% of users gave Southern an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Southern had 3 more articles in the media than FirstEnergy. MarketBeat recorded 14 mentions for Southern and 11 mentions for FirstEnergy. FirstEnergy's average media sentiment score of 1.02 beat Southern's score of 0.59 indicating that Southern is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Southern currently has a consensus price target of $76.60, indicating a potential downside of 4.42%. FirstEnergy has a consensus price target of $40.20, indicating a potential downside of 0.15%. Given Southern's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe FirstEnergy is more favorable than Southern.
Southern has higher revenue and earnings than FirstEnergy. Southern is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than FirstEnergy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Southern has a net margin of 16.74% compared to Southern's net margin of 8.22%. Southern's return on equity of 12.45% beat FirstEnergy's return on equity.
Southern has a beta of 0.48, meaning that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FirstEnergy has a beta of 0.48, meaning that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Southern pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. FirstEnergy pays an annual dividend of $1.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Southern pays out 74.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. FirstEnergy pays out 97.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Southern has increased its dividend for 24 consecutive years and FirstEnergy has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years.
Summary
Southern beats FirstEnergy on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get FirstEnergy News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for FE and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding FE 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.
FirstEnergy Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
