NI vs. AEE, WEC, ED, PEG, PCG, LNT, EVRG, ALE, XEL, and EXC
Should you be buying NiSource stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of NiSource include Ameren (AEE), WEC Energy Group (WEC), Consolidated Edison (ED), Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG), PG&E (PCG), Alliant Energy (LNT), Evergy (EVRG), ALLETE (ALE), Xcel Energy (XEL), and Exelon (EXC). These companies are all part of the "electric & other services combined" industry.
NiSource (NYSE:NI) and Ameren (NYSE:AEE) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, community ranking, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.
Ameren has higher revenue and earnings than NiSource. Ameren is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NiSource, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
NiSource has a beta of 0.49, indicating that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ameren has a beta of 0.44, indicating that its share price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.
NiSource pays an annual dividend of $1.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Ameren pays an annual dividend of $2.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. NiSource pays out 72.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ameren pays out 61.3% 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.
In the previous week, Ameren had 9 more articles in the media than NiSource. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for Ameren and 7 mentions for NiSource. NiSource's average media sentiment score of 0.61 beat Ameren's score of 0.19 indicating that NiSource is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Ameren has a net margin of 15.36% compared to NiSource's net margin of 12.98%. Ameren's return on equity of 10.42% beat NiSource's return on equity.
NiSource received 67 more outperform votes than Ameren when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 53.92% of users gave NiSource an outperform vote while only 51.26% of users gave Ameren an outperform vote.
NiSource currently has a consensus target price of $29.00, indicating a potential upside of 3.79%. Ameren has a consensus target price of $79.40, indicating a potential upside of 7.79%. Given Ameren's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ameren is more favorable than NiSource.
91.6% of NiSource shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.1% of Ameren shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of NiSource shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Ameren shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
Ameren beats NiSource 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 NI and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis 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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