Excelerate Energy (EE) Competitors

Excelerate Energy (NYSE:EE) and Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) are both energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, community ranking, media sentiment, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, dividends and earnings.

Do analysts rate EE or WTRG?

Excelerate Energy presently has a consensus target price of $31.17, suggesting a potential downside of 1.50%. Essential Utilities has a consensus target price of $43.50, suggesting a potential upside of 14.65%. Given Essential Utilities' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Essential Utilities is more favorable than Excelerate Energy.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Excelerate Energy	3 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Essential Utilities	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.83

Which has more volatility & risk, EE or WTRG?

Excelerate Energy has a beta of 1.39, suggesting that its share price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Essential Utilities has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, EE or WTRG?

Essential Utilities has higher revenue and earnings than Excelerate Energy. Essential Utilities is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Excelerate 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
Excelerate Energy	$851.44M	3.93	$30.41M	$1.25	25.31
Essential Utilities	$2.09B	5.00	$498.23M	$2.17	17.48

Is EE or WTRG more profitable?

Essential Utilities has a net margin of 27.84% compared to Excelerate Energy's net margin of 3.14%. Essential Utilities' return on equity of 7.89% beat Excelerate Energy's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Excelerate Energy	3.14%	1.39%	0.90%
Essential Utilities	27.84%	7.89%	2.79%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer EE or WTRG?

Essential Utilities received 10 more outperform votes than Excelerate Energy when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 37.93% of users gave Excelerate Energy an outperform vote while only 37.21% of users gave Essential Utilities an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Excelerate Energy	Outperform Votes 22 37.93%	Underperform Votes 36 62.07%
Essential Utilities	Outperform Votes 32 37.21%	Underperform Votes 54 62.79%

Is EE or WTRG a better dividend stock?

Excelerate Energy pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Essential Utilities pays an annual dividend of $1.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Excelerate Energy pays out 19.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Essential Utilities pays out 59.9% 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. Essential Utilities has raised its dividend for 32 consecutive years. Essential Utilities is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media prefer EE or WTRG?

In the previous week, Essential Utilities had 13 more articles in the media than Excelerate Energy. MarketBeat recorded 21 mentions for Essential Utilities and 8 mentions for Excelerate Energy. Excelerate Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.60 beat Essential Utilities' score of 0.64 indicating that Excelerate Energy is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Excelerate Energy	7 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Essential Utilities	10 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do institutionals and insiders believe in EE or WTRG?

21.8% of Excelerate Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.8% of Essential Utilities shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Excelerate Energy shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Essential Utilities shares are owned 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.

Summary

Essential Utilities beats Excelerate Energy on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.