AES (AES) Competitors

AES (NYSE:AES) and NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) are both utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, valuation, risk, earnings, community ranking, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Is AES or NRG a better dividend stock?

AES pays an annual dividend of $0.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. NRG Energy pays an annual dividend of $1.63 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. AES pays out 48.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NRG Energy pays out 41.0% 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.

Is AES or NRG more profitable?

AES has a net margin of 8.34% compared to NRG Energy's net margin of 3.43%. NRG Energy's return on equity of 48.96% beat AES's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AES	8.34%	27.30%	3.76%
NRG Energy	3.43%	48.96%	4.73%

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in AES or NRG?

93.1% of AES shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.7% of NRG Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of AES shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of NRG Energy shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer AES or NRG?

NRG Energy received 291 more outperform votes than AES when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.90% of users gave NRG Energy an outperform vote while only 62.11% of users gave AES an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
AES	Outperform Votes 395 62.11%	Underperform Votes 241 37.89%
NRG Energy	Outperform Votes 686 65.90%	Underperform Votes 355 34.10%

Which has higher earnings & valuation, AES or NRG?

AES has higher earnings, but lower revenue than NRG Energy. AES is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NRG Energy, 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
AES	$12.28B	0.75	$249M	$1.44	9.03
NRG Energy	$28.12B	0.65	-$202M	$3.98	22.73

Does the media prefer AES or NRG?

In the previous week, NRG Energy had 4 more articles in the media than AES. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for NRG Energy and 16 mentions for AES. NRG Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.23 beat AES's score of 0.47 indicating that NRG Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
AES	6 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
NRG Energy	11 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts recommend AES or NRG?

AES currently has a consensus target price of $19.30, indicating a potential upside of 48.46%. NRG Energy has a consensus target price of $102.71, indicating a potential upside of 13.56%. Given AES's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe AES is more favorable than NRG Energy.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AES	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.85
NRG Energy	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.57

Which has more risk & volatility, AES or NRG?

AES has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NRG Energy has a beta of 1.12, indicating that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

NRG Energy beats AES on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.