NWN vs. NJR, NFG, SR, OGS, KEN, HE, MSEX, VEON, IDT, and SJW
Should you be buying Northwest Natural stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Northwest Natural include New Jersey Resources (NJR), National Fuel Gas (NFG), Spire (SR), ONE Gas (OGS), Kenon (KEN), Hawaiian Electric Industries (HE), Middlesex Water (MSEX), VEON (VEON), IDT (IDT), and SJW Group (SJW). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
New Jersey Resources (NYSE:NJR) and Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, media sentiment, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, community ranking and profitability.
In the previous week, New Jersey Resources had 4 more articles in the media than Northwest Natural. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for New Jersey Resources and 2 mentions for Northwest Natural. Northwest Natural's average media sentiment score of 0.96 beat New Jersey Resources' score of 0.36 indicating that New Jersey Resources is being referred to more favorably in the media.
New Jersey Resources received 48 more outperform votes than Northwest Natural when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 57.02% of users gave New Jersey Resources an outperform vote while only 52.50% of users gave Northwest Natural an outperform vote.
New Jersey Resources pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Northwest Natural pays an annual dividend of $1.95 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. New Jersey Resources pays out 66.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Northwest Natural pays out 85.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. New Jersey Resources has increased its dividend for 28 consecutive years and Northwest Natural has increased its dividend for 69 consecutive years. Northwest Natural is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
New Jersey Resources has higher revenue and earnings than Northwest Natural. Northwest Natural is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than New Jersey Resources, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
New Jersey Resources currently has a consensus target price of $45.00, indicating a potential upside of 2.02%. Northwest Natural has a consensus target price of $41.40, indicating a potential upside of 7.42%. Given New Jersey Resources' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Northwest Natural is more favorable than New Jersey Resources.
71.0% of New Jersey Resources shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.1% of Northwest Natural shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of New Jersey Resources shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Northwest Natural shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
New Jersey Resources has a beta of 0.62, suggesting that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Northwest Natural has a beta of 0.54, suggesting that its share price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500.
New Jersey Resources has a net margin of 14.46% compared to New Jersey Resources' net margin of 7.36%. Northwest Natural's return on equity of 12.16% beat New Jersey Resources' return on equity.
Summary
New Jersey Resources beats Northwest Natural on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding NWN 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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