NFG vs. NJR, NWN, ATO, OGS, SR, UGI, MDU, IDA, SWX, and POR
Should you be buying National Fuel Gas stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of National Fuel Gas include New Jersey Resources (NJR), Northwest Natural (NWN), Atmos Energy (ATO), ONE Gas (OGS), Spire (SR), UGI (UGI), MDU Resources Group (MDU), IDACORP (IDA), Southwest Gas (SWX), and Portland General Electric (POR). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
New Jersey Resources (NYSE:NJR) and National Fuel Gas (NYSE:NFG) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, media sentiment, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, dividends and community ranking.
New Jersey Resources pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. National Fuel Gas pays an annual dividend of $1.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. New Jersey Resources pays out 66.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. National Fuel Gas pays out 39.3% 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. New Jersey Resources has raised its dividend for 28 consecutive years and National Fuel Gas has raised its dividend for 54 consecutive years.
New Jersey Resources presently has a consensus price target of $45.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.02%. National Fuel Gas has a consensus price target of $62.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9.52%. Given New Jersey Resources' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe National Fuel Gas is more favorable than New Jersey Resources.
National Fuel Gas received 126 more outperform votes than New Jersey Resources when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.83% of users gave National Fuel Gas an outperform vote while only 57.02% of users gave New Jersey Resources an outperform vote.
71.0% of New Jersey Resources shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.0% of National Fuel Gas shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of New Jersey Resources shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of National Fuel Gas shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
National Fuel Gas has a net margin of 23.84% compared to National Fuel Gas' net margin of 14.46%. New Jersey Resources' return on equity of 15.06% beat National Fuel Gas' return on equity.
New Jersey Resources has a beta of 0.62, meaning that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, National Fuel Gas has a beta of 0.63, meaning that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, New Jersey Resources had 3 more articles in the media than National Fuel Gas. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for New Jersey Resources and 3 mentions for National Fuel Gas. New Jersey Resources' average media sentiment score of 1.67 beat National Fuel Gas' score of 0.96 indicating that National Fuel Gas is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
National Fuel Gas has higher revenue and earnings than New Jersey Resources. National Fuel Gas is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than New Jersey Resources, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
National Fuel Gas beats New Jersey Resources on 18 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get National Fuel Gas News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for NFG and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding NFG 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.
National Fuel Gas Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
