UIL (UTL) Competitors

Next 15 Group (LON:NFG) and UIL (LON:UTL) are both small-cap communication services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, valuation, community ranking, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Is NFG or UTL a better dividend stock?

Next 15 Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 15 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. UIL pays an annual dividend of GBX 8 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.1%. Next 15 Group pays out 2,586.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. UIL pays out -2,666.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. UIL is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the media favor NFG or UTL?

In the previous week, UIL's average media sentiment score of 1.66 beat Next 15 Group's score of 0.00 indicating that UIL is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Next 15 Group	Neutral
UIL	Very Positive

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, NFG or UTL?

Next 15 Group has higher revenue and earnings than UIL. UIL is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Next 15 Group, 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
Next 15 Group	£733.84M	0.51	£60.78M	£0.58	639.96
UIL	-£16.02M	-5.92	-£25.02M	-£0.30	-377.21

Do analysts recommend NFG or UTL?

Next 15 Group currently has a consensus target price of GBX 885, indicating a potential upside of 138.43%. Given Next 15 Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Next 15 Group is more favorable than UIL.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Next 15 Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
UIL	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in NFG or UTL?

UIL received 74 more outperform votes than Next 15 Group when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 92.86% of users gave Next 15 Group an outperform vote while only 76.99% of users gave UIL an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Next 15 Group	Outperform Votes 13 92.86%	Underperform Votes 1 7.14%
UIL	Outperform Votes 87 76.99%	Underperform Votes 26 23.01%

Do institutionals and insiders believe in NFG or UTL?

68.0% of Next 15 Group shares are held by institutional investors. 7.6% of Next 15 Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 78.0% of UIL shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is NFG or UTL more profitable?

Next 15 Group has a net margin of 8.28% compared to UIL's net margin of 0.00%. Next 15 Group's return on equity of 43.44% beat UIL's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Next 15 Group	8.28%	43.44%	9.17%
UIL	N/A	-16.40%	-3.94%

Which has more risk & volatility, NFG or UTL?

Next 15 Group has a beta of 1.5, suggesting that its share price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UIL has a beta of 0.8, suggesting that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Next 15 Group beats UIL on 14 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.