FTS vs. H, EMA, BIP.UN, BEP.UN, BEPC, CUP.U, CU, BIPC, AQN, and NPI
Should you be buying Fortis stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Fortis include Hydro One (H), Emera (EMA), Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP.UN), Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP.UN), Brookfield Renewable (BEPC), Caribbean Utilities (CUP.U), Canadian Utilities (CU), Brookfield Infrastructure (BIPC), Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN), and Northland Power (NPI). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
Hydro One (TSE:H) and Fortis (TSE:FTS) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, community ranking, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and media sentiment.
Fortis received 235 more outperform votes than Hydro One when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 67.67% of users gave Fortis an outperform vote while only 64.93% of users gave Hydro One an outperform vote.
Hydro One has a beta of 0.29, meaning that its share price is 71% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fortis has a beta of 0.18, meaning that its share price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500.
21.9% of Hydro One shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.0% of Fortis shares are owned by institutional investors. 47.1% of Hydro One shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of Fortis shares are owned by company 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.
Hydro One pays an annual dividend of C$1.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Fortis pays an annual dividend of C$2.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Hydro One pays out 68.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Fortis pays out 75.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.
Fortis has a net margin of 14.11% compared to Fortis' net margin of 13.81%. Fortis' return on equity of 9.45% beat Hydro One's return on equity.
Fortis has higher revenue and earnings than Hydro One. Fortis is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hydro One, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Hydro One currently has a consensus price target of C$39.83, suggesting a potential downside of 0.86%. Fortis has a consensus price target of C$57.38, suggesting a potential upside of 3.40%. Given Hydro One's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Fortis is more favorable than Hydro One.
In the previous week, Hydro One had 16 more articles in the media than Fortis. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for Hydro One and 2 mentions for Fortis. Hydro One's average media sentiment score of 0.31 beat Fortis' score of 0.18 indicating that Fortis is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
Fortis beats Hydro One on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding FTS 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 TSE 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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