UIL (UTL) Competitors

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

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of UTL or NFG?

68.0% of Next 15 Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 78.0% of UIL shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of Next 15 Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more risk & volatility, UTL or NFG?

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

Do analysts rate UTL or NFG?

Next 15 Group has a consensus target price of GBX 885, suggesting a potential upside of 177.86%. Given Next 15 Group's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Next 15 Group is more favorable than UIL.

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

Is UTL or NFG a better dividend stock?

UIL pays an annual dividend of GBX 8 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.9%. Next 15 Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 15 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. UIL pays out -26.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Next 15 Group pays out 24.6% 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. UIL is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in UTL or NFG?

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

Does the media prefer UTL or NFG?

In the previous week, UIL and UIL both had 1 articles in the media. UIL's average media sentiment score of 0.85 beat Next 15 Group's score of 0.75 indicating that UIL is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
UIL	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Next 15 Group	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, UTL or NFG?

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
UIL	-£16.90M	-6.04	-£26.39M	-£29.84	-3.87
Next 15 Group	£741.75M	0.43	£61.44M	£60.87	5.23

Is UTL or NFG more profitable?

UIL has a net margin of 156.15% compared to Next 15 Group's net margin of 8.28%. Next 15 Group's return on equity of 37.44% beat UIL's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
UIL	156.15%	-16.21%	-3.94%
Next 15 Group	8.28%	37.44%	9.17%

Summary

Next 15 Group beats UIL on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.