Essential Utilities (WTRG) Competitors

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) and Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, community ranking, valuation, profitability, dividends, risk, media sentiment and institutional ownership.

Do analysts recommend AWK or WTRG?

American Water Works currently has a consensus price target of $141.33, indicating a potential upside of 10.20%. Essential Utilities has a consensus price target of $43.00, indicating a potential upside of 16.31%. Given American Water Works' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Essential Utilities is more favorable than American Water Works.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Water Works	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Essential Utilities	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in AWK or WTRG?

American Water Works received 469 more outperform votes than Essential Utilities when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.78% of users gave American Water Works an outperform vote while only 30.14% of users gave Essential Utilities an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
American Water Works	Outperform Votes 491 64.78%	Underperform Votes 267 35.22%
Essential Utilities	Outperform Votes 22 30.14%	Underperform Votes 51 69.86%

Which has more volatility & risk, AWK or WTRG?

American Water Works has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Essential Utilities has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is AWK or WTRG a better dividend stock?

American Water Works pays an annual dividend of $3.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Essential Utilities pays an annual dividend of $1.23 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. American Water Works pays out 62.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Essential Utilities pays out 58.3% 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. American Water Works has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and 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.

Is AWK or WTRG more profitable?

Essential Utilities has a net margin of 29.52% compared to Essential Utilities' net margin of 22.27%. Essential Utilities' return on equity of 9.74% beat American Water Works' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Water Works	22.27%	9.74%	3.18%
Essential Utilities	29.52%	8.62%	3.05%

Does the media prefer AWK or WTRG?

In the previous week, American Water Works had 9 more articles in the media than Essential Utilities. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for American Water Works and 4 mentions for Essential Utilities. American Water Works' average media sentiment score of 1.73 beat Essential Utilities' score of 1.27 indicating that Essential Utilities is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
American Water Works	8 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Essential Utilities	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in AWK or WTRG?

86.6% of American Water Works shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.8% of Essential Utilities shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of American Water Works shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Essential Utilities shares are owned by 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.

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, AWK or WTRG?

American Water Works has higher revenue and earnings than Essential Utilities. Essential Utilities is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Water Works, 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
American Water Works	$4.23B	5.90	$944M	$4.93	26.01
Essential Utilities	$2.05B	4.92	$498.23M	$2.11	17.52

Summary

American Water Works beats Essential Utilities on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.