NEE vs. SO, AEP, D, DUK, NGG, SRE, EXC, PCG, EIX, and ETR
Should you be buying NextEra Energy stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of NextEra Energy include Southern (SO), American Electric Power (AEP), Dominion Energy (D), Duke Energy (DUK), National Grid (NGG), Sempra (SRE), Exelon (EXC), PG&E (PCG), Edison International (EIX), and Entergy (ETR). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) and Southern (NYSE:SO) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, community ranking, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, media sentiment, risk and profitability.
NextEra Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Southern. NextEra Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southern, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
NextEra Energy has a beta of 0.5, suggesting that its share price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southern has a beta of 0.48, suggesting that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.
NextEra Energy currently has a consensus price target of $71.50, indicating a potential upside of 1.94%. Southern has a consensus price target of $74.71, indicating a potential downside of 1.50%. Given NextEra Energy's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe NextEra Energy is more favorable than Southern.
In the previous week, Southern had 1 more articles in the media than NextEra Energy. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for Southern and 27 mentions for NextEra Energy. NextEra Energy's average media sentiment score of 0.96 beat Southern's score of 0.50 indicating that NextEra Energy is being referred to more favorably in the media.
78.7% of NextEra Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.1% of Southern shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of NextEra Energy shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Southern shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
NextEra Energy has a net margin of 27.62% compared to Southern's net margin of 16.74%. Southern's return on equity of 12.11% beat NextEra Energy's return on equity.
NextEra Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Southern pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. NextEra Energy pays out 56.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Southern pays out 72.4% 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.
NextEra Energy received 229 more outperform votes than Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.21% of users gave NextEra Energy an outperform vote while only 50.00% of users gave Southern an outperform vote.
Summary
NextEra Energy beats Southern on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding NEE 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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