BKH vs. NI, MDU, AVA, PCG, SRE, D, PEG, ED, WEC, and DTE
Should you be buying Black Hills stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Black Hills include NiSource (NI), MDU Resources Group (MDU), Avista (AVA), PG&E (PCG), Sempra (SRE), Dominion Energy (D), Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG), Consolidated Edison (ED), WEC Energy Group (WEC), and DTE Energy (DTE). These companies are all part of the "multi-utilities" industry.
Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) and NiSource (NYSE:NI) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, community ranking, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, media sentiment, dividends and valuation.
In the previous week, Black Hills had 6 more articles in the media than NiSource. MarketBeat recorded 14 mentions for Black Hills and 8 mentions for NiSource. Black Hills' average media sentiment score of 0.77 beat NiSource's score of 0.70 indicating that Black Hills is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Black Hills has a beta of 0.64, suggesting that its stock price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NiSource has a beta of 0.49, suggesting that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.
NiSource has a net margin of 14.23% compared to Black Hills' net margin of 12.92%. NiSource's return on equity of 9.56% beat Black Hills' return on equity.
Black Hills pays an annual dividend of $2.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. NiSource pays an annual dividend of $1.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Black Hills pays out 64.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NiSource pays out 69.3% 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. Black Hills is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Black Hills presently has a consensus target price of $54.80, suggesting a potential upside of 1.13%. NiSource has a consensus target price of $29.71, suggesting a potential upside of 7.04%. Given NiSource's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe NiSource is more favorable than Black Hills.
86.7% of Black Hills shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of NiSource shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Black Hills shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of NiSource shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
NiSource has higher revenue and earnings than Black Hills. Black Hills is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NiSource, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
NiSource received 44 more outperform votes than Black Hills when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 59.42% of users gave Black Hills an outperform vote while only 54.10% of users gave NiSource an outperform vote.
Summary
NiSource beats Black Hills on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding BKH and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis 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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