UGI vs. ATO, SWX, NFG, NJR, CPK, NWN, OKE, OPAL, MNTK, and CLNE
Should you be buying UGI stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of UGI include Atmos Energy (ATO), Southwest Gas (SWX), National Fuel Gas (NFG), New Jersey Resources (NJR), Chesapeake Utilities (CPK), Northwest Natural (NWN), ONEOK (OKE), OPAL Fuels (OPAL), Montauk Renewables (MNTK), and Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE).
Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) and UGI (NYSE:UGI) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, media sentiment, valuation, risk, community ranking, analyst recommendations and dividends.
90.2% of Atmos Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.3% of UGI shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Atmos Energy shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of UGI shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Atmos Energy has higher earnings, but lower revenue than UGI. UGI is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Atmos Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Atmos Energy pays an annual dividend of $3.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. UGI pays an annual dividend of $1.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.9%. Atmos Energy pays out 48.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. UGI pays out -365.9% 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. Atmos Energy has raised its dividend for 40 consecutive years and UGI has raised its dividend for 36 consecutive years. UGI is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Atmos Energy presently has a consensus target price of $129.17, suggesting a potential upside of 11.43%. UGI has a consensus target price of $27.00, suggesting a potential upside of 6.05%. Given UGI's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Atmos Energy is more favorable than UGI.
Atmos Energy received 250 more outperform votes than UGI when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.43% of users gave Atmos Energy an outperform vote while only 53.77% of users gave UGI an outperform vote.
Atmos Energy has a net margin of 24.65% compared to Atmos Energy's net margin of -0.89%. Atmos Energy's return on equity of 15.78% beat UGI's return on equity.
Atmos Energy has a beta of 0.66, suggesting that its share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UGI has a beta of 1.13, suggesting that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Atmos Energy had 6 more articles in the media than UGI. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Atmos Energy and 6 mentions for UGI. UGI's average media sentiment score of 0.92 beat Atmos Energy's score of 0.52 indicating that Atmos Energy is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Summary
Atmos Energy beats UGI on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UGI 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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