Unitil (UTL) Competitors

Otter Tail (NASDAQ:OTTR) and Unitil (NYSE:UTL) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, community ranking, dividends, profitability, risk, valuation, media sentiment and analyst recommendations.

Do analysts recommend OTTR or UTL?

Unitil has a consensus price target of $55.00, suggesting a potential downside of 2.18%. Given Unitil's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Unitil is more favorable than Otter Tail.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Otter Tail	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Unitil	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in OTTR or UTL?

Unitil received 88 more outperform votes than Otter Tail when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.68% of users gave Unitil an outperform vote while only 59.67% of users gave Otter Tail an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Otter Tail	Outperform Votes 250 59.67%	Underperform Votes 169 40.33%
Unitil	Outperform Votes 338 61.68%	Underperform Votes 210 38.32%

Does the media refer more to OTTR or UTL?

In the previous week, Otter Tail had 24 more articles in the media than Unitil. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for Otter Tail and 1 mentions for Unitil. Unitil's average media sentiment score of 0.40 beat Otter Tail's score of 0.17 indicating that Unitil is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Otter Tail	2 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	17 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Unitil	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Which has more risk and volatility, OTTR or UTL?

Otter Tail has a beta of 0.57, meaning that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Unitil has a beta of 0.63, meaning that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is OTTR or UTL more profitable?

Otter Tail has a net margin of 22.67% compared to Unitil's net margin of 9.52%. Otter Tail's return on equity of 18.96% beat Unitil's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Otter Tail	22.67%	18.96%	8.62%
Unitil	9.52%	9.36%	2.75%

Is OTTR or UTL a better dividend stock?

Otter Tail pays an annual dividend of $2.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Unitil pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Otter Tail pays out 29.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Unitil pays out 61.4% 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. Otter Tail has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years and Unitil has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years.

Which has better earnings and valuation, OTTR or UTL?

Otter Tail has higher revenue and earnings than Unitil. Otter Tail is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Unitil, 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
Otter Tail	$1.33B	2.56	$294.19M	$7.17	11.36
Unitil	$494.80M	1.85	$47.10M	$2.93	19.19

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in OTTR or UTL?

61.3% of Otter Tail shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.8% of Unitil shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of Otter Tail shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Unitil shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Otter Tail beats Unitil on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.