GNE vs. UTL, ARTNA, CWCO, CNSL, GWRS, YORW, CLNE, PCYO, BROG, and EDN
Should you be buying Genie Energy stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Genie Energy include Unitil (UTL), Artesian Resources (ARTNA), Consolidated Water (CWCO), Consolidated Communications (CNSL), Global Water Resources (GWRS), York Water (YORW), Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE), Pure Cycle (PCYO), Brooge Energy (BROG), and Empresa Distribuidora y Comercializadora Norte Sociedad Anónima (EDN). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
Unitil (NYSE:UTL) and Genie Energy (NYSE:GNE) are both small-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, media sentiment, risk, institutional ownership, community ranking, earnings, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.
Unitil presently has a consensus price target of $51.00, indicating a potential downside of 5.83%. Given Genie Energy's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Unitil is more favorable than Genie Energy.
In the previous week, Genie Energy had 2 more articles in the media than Unitil. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for Genie Energy and 1 mentions for Unitil. Unitil's average media sentiment score of 1.68 beat Genie Energy's score of 0.00 indicating that Genie Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Unitil received 153 more outperform votes than Genie Energy when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.79% of users gave Unitil an outperform vote while only 57.10% of users gave Genie Energy an outperform vote.
76.8% of Unitil shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.2% of Genie Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of Unitil shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 16.5% of Genie Energy shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Unitil has a net margin of 9.37% compared to Unitil's net margin of 2.99%. Unitil's return on equity of 24.06% beat Genie Energy's return on equity.
Unitil has higher revenue and earnings than Genie Energy. Unitil is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Genie Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Unitil pays an annual dividend of $1.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Genie Energy pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Unitil pays out 56.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Genie Energy pays out 60.0% 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. Unitil has increased its dividend for 10 consecutive years. Unitil is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Unitil has a beta of 0.58, suggesting that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Genie Energy has a beta of 0.17, suggesting that its share price is 83% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Unitil beats Genie Energy on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get Genie Energy News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for GNE and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding GNE 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.
Genie Energy Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
