Northwest Natural (NWN) Competitors

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

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of NWN or SWX?

75.1% of Northwest Natural shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.8% of Southwest Gas shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of Northwest Natural shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Southwest Gas shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is NWN or SWX more profitable?

Northwest Natural has a net margin of 6.90% compared to Southwest Gas' net margin of 3.44%. Southwest Gas' return on equity of 5.99% beat Northwest Natural's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Northwest Natural	6.90%	5.89%	1.61%
Southwest Gas	3.44%	5.99%	1.76%

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, NWN or SWX?

Southwest Gas has higher revenue and earnings than Northwest Natural. Northwest Natural is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southwest Gas, 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
Northwest Natural	$1.15B	1.50	$93.87M	$2.03	21.15
Southwest Gas	$5.11B	1.03	$150.89M	$2.75	26.73

Which has more risk & volatility, NWN or SWX?

Northwest Natural has a beta of 0.56, indicating that its stock price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southwest Gas has a beta of 0.5, indicating that its stock price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor NWN or SWX?

In the previous week, Southwest Gas had 6 more articles in the media than Northwest Natural. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Southwest Gas and 6 mentions for Northwest Natural. Southwest Gas' average media sentiment score of 1.47 beat Northwest Natural's score of 1.34 indicating that Southwest Gas is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Northwest Natural	5 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Southwest Gas	11 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is NWN or SWX a better dividend stock?

Northwest Natural pays an annual dividend of $1.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Southwest Gas pays an annual dividend of $2.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Northwest Natural pays out 96.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Southwest Gas pays out 90.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Northwest Natural has increased its dividend for 70 consecutive years. Northwest Natural is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Do analysts recommend NWN or SWX?

Northwest Natural currently has a consensus target price of $43.50, indicating a potential upside of 1.32%. Southwest Gas has a consensus target price of $74.00, indicating a potential upside of 0.66%. Given Northwest Natural's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Northwest Natural is more favorable than Southwest Gas.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Northwest Natural	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Southwest Gas	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in NWN or SWX?

Southwest Gas received 3 more outperform votes than Northwest Natural when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 52.08% of users gave Northwest Natural an outperform vote while only 51.10% of users gave Southwest Gas an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Northwest Natural	Outperform Votes 275 52.08%	Underperform Votes 253 47.92%
Southwest Gas	Outperform Votes 278 51.10%	Underperform Votes 266 48.90%

Summary

Southwest Gas beats Northwest Natural on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.