AVA vs. NWE, ALE, UTL, MGEE, CWT, AWR, PAM, PRMW, MYRG, and PNM
Should you be buying Avista stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Avista include NorthWestern Energy Group (NWE), ALLETE (ALE), Unitil (UTL), MGE Energy (MGEE), California Water Service Group (CWT), American States Water (AWR), Pampa Energía (PAM), Primo Water (PRMW), MYR Group (MYRG), and PNM Resources (PNM). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) and Avista (NYSE:AVA) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, community ranking and risk.
96.1% of NorthWestern Energy Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.2% of Avista shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of NorthWestern Energy Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Avista shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
NorthWestern Energy Group has a net margin of 13.62% compared to NorthWestern Energy Group's net margin of 9.96%. NorthWestern Energy Group's return on equity of 7.65% beat Avista's return on equity.
NorthWestern Energy Group presently has a consensus price target of $51.86, suggesting a potential downside of 1.34%. Avista has a consensus price target of $35.00, suggesting a potential downside of 8.81%. Given Avista's higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe NorthWestern Energy Group is more favorable than Avista.
In the previous week, NorthWestern Energy Group had 5 more articles in the media than Avista. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for NorthWestern Energy Group and 0 mentions for Avista. NorthWestern Energy Group's average media sentiment score of 1.76 beat Avista's score of 1.48 indicating that Avista is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
NorthWestern Energy Group has a beta of 0.43, suggesting that its stock price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Avista has a beta of 0.48, suggesting that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Avista received 233 more outperform votes than NorthWestern Energy Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 47.76% of users gave Avista an outperform vote while only 12.50% of users gave NorthWestern Energy Group an outperform vote.
NorthWestern Energy Group pays an annual dividend of $2.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Avista pays an annual dividend of $1.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. NorthWestern Energy Group pays out 80.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Avista pays out 78.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. NorthWestern Energy Group has increased its dividend for 20 consecutive years and Avista has increased its dividend for 22 consecutive years. Avista is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
NorthWestern Energy Group has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Avista. Avista is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NorthWestern Energy Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
NorthWestern Energy Group and Avista tied by winning 10 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AVA 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.
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