MDU vs. NFG, IDA, SWX, UGI, POR, NJR, AQN, ENIC, BEP, and BIPC
Should you be buying MDU Resources Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of MDU Resources Group include National Fuel Gas (NFG), IDACORP (IDA), Southwest Gas (SWX), UGI (UGI), Portland General Electric (POR), New Jersey Resources (NJR), Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN), Enel Chile (ENIC), Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP), and Brookfield Infrastructure (BIPC). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
National Fuel Gas (NYSE:NFG) and MDU Resources Group (NYSE:MDU) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, community ranking, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.
74.0% of National Fuel Gas shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.4% of MDU Resources Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of National Fuel Gas shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of MDU Resources Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
National Fuel Gas has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MDU Resources Group has a beta of 0.78, indicating that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, National Fuel Gas had 7 more articles in the media than MDU Resources Group. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for National Fuel Gas and 2 mentions for MDU Resources Group. MDU Resources Group's average media sentiment score of 0.51 beat National Fuel Gas' score of -0.07 indicating that National Fuel Gas is being referred to more favorably in the media.
National Fuel Gas has a net margin of 21.58% compared to National Fuel Gas' net margin of 8.35%. MDU Resources Group's return on equity of 14.81% beat National Fuel Gas' return on equity.
National Fuel Gas has higher earnings, but lower revenue than MDU Resources Group. National Fuel Gas is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MDU Resources Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
National Fuel Gas currently has a consensus target price of $61.25, indicating a potential upside of 15.70%. Given MDU Resources Group's higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe National Fuel Gas is more favorable than MDU Resources Group.
National Fuel Gas received 177 more outperform votes than MDU Resources Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.78% of users gave National Fuel Gas an outperform vote while only 61.70% of users gave MDU Resources Group an outperform vote.
National Fuel Gas pays an annual dividend of $1.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. MDU Resources Group pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. National Fuel Gas pays out 41.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MDU Resources Group pays out 24.5% 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. National Fuel Gas has increased its dividend for 54 consecutive years. National Fuel Gas is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Summary
National Fuel Gas beats MDU Resources Group on 15 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MDU 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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