NEE vs. SO, AEP, D, DUK, NGG, SRE, EXC, PCG, EIX, and FE
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 FirstEnergy (FE). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
Southern (NYSE:SO) and NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, community ranking, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends and media sentiment.
NextEra Energy received 230 more outperform votes than Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.23% of users gave NextEra Energy an outperform vote while only 50.00% of users gave Southern an outperform vote.
In the previous week, Southern had 4 more articles in the media than NextEra Energy. MarketBeat recorded 30 mentions for Southern and 26 mentions for NextEra Energy. Southern's average media sentiment score of 1.12 beat NextEra Energy's score of 0.76 indicating that NextEra Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Southern currently has a consensus price target of $74.71, indicating a potential downside of 3.76%. NextEra Energy has a consensus price target of $71.93, indicating a potential downside of 1.25%. Given Southern's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe NextEra Energy is more favorable than Southern.
Southern pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. NextEra Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Southern pays out 74.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NextEra Energy pays out 56.1% 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. Southern has raised its dividend for 24 consecutive years and NextEra Energy has raised its dividend for 30 consecutive years.
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.
Southern has a beta of 0.48, indicating that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NextEra Energy has a beta of 0.5, indicating that its share price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500.
64.1% of Southern shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.7% of NextEra Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Southern shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of NextEra Energy shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
NextEra Energy has a net margin of 27.62% compared to NextEra Energy's net margin of 16.74%. NextEra Energy's return on equity of 12.07% beat Southern's return on equity.
Summary
NextEra Energy beats Southern on 15 of the 21 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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