Unitil (UTL) Competitors

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

Does the MarketBeat Community favor UTL or OTTR?

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

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, UTL or OTTR?

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
Unitil	$494.80M	1.81	$47.10M	$2.93	18.78
Otter Tail	$1.33B	2.50	$294.19M	$7.17	11.10

Is UTL or OTTR a better dividend stock?

Unitil pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Otter Tail pays an annual dividend of $2.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Unitil pays out 61.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Otter Tail pays out 29.3% 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. Unitil has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years and Otter Tail has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years.

Is UTL or OTTR 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
Unitil	9.52%	9.36%	2.75%
Otter Tail	22.67%	18.96%	8.62%

Which has more risk & volatility, UTL or OTTR?

Unitil has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Otter Tail has a beta of 0.53, indicating that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend UTL or OTTR?

Unitil presently has a consensus price target of $55.00, suggesting a potential downside of 0.07%. Given Unitil's higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Unitil is more favorable than Otter Tail.

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

Do institutionals & insiders believe in UTL or OTTR?

76.8% of Unitil shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.3% of Otter Tail shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of Unitil shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Otter Tail shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the media favor UTL or OTTR?

In the previous week, Unitil and Unitil both had 4 articles in the media. Unitil's average media sentiment score of 1.04 beat Otter Tail's score of 0.96 indicating that Unitil is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Unitil	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Otter Tail	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Otter Tail beats Unitil on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.