ONE Gas (OGS) Competitors

ONE Gas (NYSE:OGS) and Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, media sentiment, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Which has more risk and volatility, OGS or LNT?

ONE Gas has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alliant Energy has a beta of 0.53, suggesting that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is OGS or LNT more profitable?

Alliant Energy has a net margin of 20.07% compared to ONE Gas' net margin of 10.63%. Alliant Energy's return on equity of 12.31% beat ONE Gas' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ONE Gas	10.63%	8.07%	2.99%
Alliant Energy	20.07%	12.31%	3.79%

Is OGS or LNT a better dividend stock?

ONE Gas pays an annual dividend of $2.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Alliant Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. ONE Gas pays out 64.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Alliant Energy pays out 70.0% 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. ONE Gas has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Alliant Energy has raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years. ONE Gas is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, OGS or LNT?

Alliant Energy has higher revenue and earnings than ONE Gas. ONE Gas is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alliant 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
ONE Gas	$2.08B	2.17	$222.85M	$4.19	17.95
Alliant Energy	$3.98B	4.24	$690M	$2.90	22.63

Do analysts prefer OGS or LNT?

ONE Gas currently has a consensus target price of $77.64, suggesting a potential upside of 3.25%. Alliant Energy has a consensus target price of $64.23, suggesting a potential downside of 2.15%. Given ONE Gas' higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe ONE Gas is more favorable than Alliant Energy.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ONE Gas	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.29
Alliant Energy	1 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.36

Do insiders and institutionals believe in OGS or LNT?

88.7% of ONE Gas shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.9% of Alliant Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of ONE Gas shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Alliant Energy shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer OGS or LNT?

In the previous week, Alliant Energy had 8 more articles in the media than ONE Gas. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for Alliant Energy and 12 mentions for ONE Gas. Alliant Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.47 beat ONE Gas' score of 0.78 indicating that Alliant Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
ONE Gas	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Alliant Energy	15 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Alliant Energy beats ONE Gas on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.