AEE vs. WEC, NI, ED, PEG, PCG, LNT, EVRG, XEL, EXC, and NOVA
Should you be buying Ameren stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Ameren include WEC Energy Group (WEC), NiSource (NI), Consolidated Edison (ED), Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG), PG&E (PCG), Alliant Energy (LNT), Evergy (EVRG), Xcel Energy (XEL), Exelon (EXC), and Sunnova Energy International (NOVA). These companies are all part of the "electric & other services combined" industry.
WEC Energy Group (NYSE:WEC) and Ameren (NYSE:AEE) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, earnings, media sentiment, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, community ranking and analyst recommendations.
WEC Energy Group currently has a consensus price target of $86.64, indicating a potential upside of 6.32%. Ameren has a consensus price target of $79.40, indicating a potential upside of 7.79%. Given WEC Energy Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ameren is more favorable than WEC Energy Group.
Ameren has a net margin of 15.36% compared to Ameren's net margin of 14.98%. Ameren's return on equity of 12.17% beat WEC Energy Group's return on equity.
In the previous week, WEC Energy Group had 2 more articles in the media than Ameren. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for WEC Energy Group and 16 mentions for Ameren. Ameren's average media sentiment score of 0.75 beat WEC Energy Group's score of 0.19 indicating that WEC Energy Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.
WEC Energy Group received 74 more outperform votes than Ameren when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 52.57% of users gave WEC Energy Group an outperform vote while only 51.26% of users gave Ameren an outperform vote.
77.2% of WEC Energy Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.1% of Ameren shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of WEC Energy Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Ameren shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
WEC Energy Group has higher revenue and earnings than Ameren. Ameren is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WEC Energy Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
WEC Energy Group pays an annual dividend of $3.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Ameren pays an annual dividend of $2.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. WEC Energy Group pays out 79.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ameren pays out 61.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WEC Energy Group has raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years and Ameren has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years. WEC Energy Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
WEC Energy Group has a beta of 0.4, meaning that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ameren has a beta of 0.44, meaning that its share price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
WEC Energy Group beats Ameren on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AEE 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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