ALE vs. NWE, AVA, EVRG, NI, LNT, SR, PNM, OTTR, OGS, and BKH
Should you be buying ALLETE stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of ALLETE include NorthWestern Energy Group (NWE), Avista (AVA), Evergy (EVRG), NiSource (NI), Alliant Energy (LNT), Spire (SR), PNM Resources (PNM), Otter Tail (OTTR), ONE Gas (OGS), and Black Hills (BKH). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) and ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, media sentiment, earnings, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.
ALLETE has higher revenue and earnings than NorthWestern Energy Group. ALLETE is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NorthWestern Energy Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, NorthWestern Energy Group had 13 more articles in the media than ALLETE. MarketBeat recorded 19 mentions for NorthWestern Energy Group and 6 mentions for ALLETE. NorthWestern Energy Group's average media sentiment score of 0.83 beat ALLETE's score of 0.51 indicating that ALLETE is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
NorthWestern Energy Group pays an annual dividend of $2.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. ALLETE pays an annual dividend of $2.82 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. NorthWestern Energy Group pays out 80.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. ALLETE pays out 65.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NorthWestern Energy Group has increased its dividend for 19 consecutive years and ALLETE has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years. NorthWestern Energy Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
ALLETE received 284 more outperform votes than NorthWestern Energy Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 52.38% of users gave ALLETE an outperform vote while only 13.33% of users gave NorthWestern Energy Group an outperform vote.
NorthWestern Energy Group presently has a consensus target price of $51.71, suggesting a potential upside of 1.70%. ALLETE has a consensus target price of $58.60, suggesting a potential downside of 2.90%. Given ALLETE's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe NorthWestern Energy Group is more favorable than ALLETE.
96.1% of NorthWestern Energy Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.6% of ALLETE shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of NorthWestern Energy Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of ALLETE shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
NorthWestern Energy Group has a net margin of 13.62% compared to NorthWestern Energy Group's net margin of 13.15%.
NorthWestern Energy Group has a beta of 0.43, suggesting that its stock price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ALLETE has a beta of 0.75, suggesting that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
NorthWestern Energy Group beats ALLETE on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ALE 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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