WTRG vs. XEL, CQP, FTS, WES, LNT, AGR, EVRG, EBR, DTM, and SBS
Should you be buying Essential Utilities stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Essential Utilities include Xcel Energy (XEL), Cheniere Energy Partners (CQP), Fortis (FTS), Western Midstream Partners (WES), Alliant Energy (LNT), Avangrid (AGR), Evergy (EVRG), Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras S.A. - Eletrobrás (EBR), DT Midstream (DTM), and Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (SBS). These companies are all part of the "utilities" industry.
Essential Utilities vs.
Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) and Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, community ranking, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.
78.4% of Xcel Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.8% of Essential Utilities shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Xcel Energy shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Essential Utilities shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Xcel Energy currently has a consensus target price of $69.67, indicating a potential upside of 4.42%. Essential Utilities has a consensus target price of $43.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.61%. Given Essential Utilities' higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Essential Utilities is more favorable than Xcel Energy.
Essential Utilities has a net margin of 27.84% compared to Xcel Energy's net margin of 13.67%. Xcel Energy's return on equity of 10.76% beat Essential Utilities' return on equity.
Xcel Energy received 14 more outperform votes than Essential Utilities when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 36.14% of users gave Essential Utilities an outperform vote while only 32.12% of users gave Xcel Energy an outperform vote.
Xcel Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Essential Utilities. Essential Utilities is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Xcel Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Xcel Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.19 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Essential Utilities pays an annual dividend of $1.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Xcel Energy pays out 65.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Essential Utilities pays out 65.0% 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. Essential Utilities has increased its dividend for 21 consecutive years. Essential Utilities is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
In the previous week, Xcel Energy had 3 more articles in the media than Essential Utilities. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for Xcel Energy and 17 mentions for Essential Utilities. Xcel Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.28 beat Essential Utilities' score of 0.55 indicating that Xcel Energy is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Xcel Energy has a beta of 0.42, meaning that its stock price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Essential Utilities has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Xcel Energy beats Essential Utilities on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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Media Sentiment Over Time
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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This page (NYSE:WTRG) was last updated on 1/20/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
