NWE vs. AVA, ALE, UTL, EVRG, PRMW, CWT, MGEE, PNM, AWR, and SR
Should you be buying NorthWestern Energy Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of NorthWestern Energy Group include Avista (AVA), ALLETE (ALE), Unitil (UTL), Evergy (EVRG), Primo Water (PRMW), California Water Service Group (CWT), MGE Energy (MGEE), PNM Resources (PNM), American States Water (AWR), and Spire (SR). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) and Avista (NYSE:AVA) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and media sentiment.
NorthWestern Energy Group has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Avista. Avista is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NorthWestern Energy Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
NorthWestern Energy Group presently has a consensus target price of $51.86, indicating a potential downside of 1.34%. Avista has a consensus target price of $35.00, indicating a potential downside of 8.81%. Given NorthWestern Energy Group's higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe NorthWestern Energy Group is more favorable than Avista.
NorthWestern Energy Group has a net margin of 13.62% compared to Avista's net margin of 9.96%. Avista's return on equity of 7.65% beat NorthWestern Energy Group's return on equity.
Avista received 233 more outperform votes than NorthWestern Energy Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 47.76% of users gave Avista an outperform vote while only 12.50% of users gave NorthWestern Energy Group an outperform vote.
96.1% of NorthWestern Energy Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.2% of Avista shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of NorthWestern Energy Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Avista shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
In the previous week, NorthWestern Energy Group had 4 more articles in the media than Avista. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for NorthWestern Energy Group and 2 mentions for Avista. NorthWestern Energy Group's average media sentiment score of 1.29 beat Avista's score of 0.99 indicating that NorthWestern Energy Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.
NorthWestern Energy Group has a beta of 0.43, indicating that its share price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Avista has a beta of 0.48, indicating that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.
NorthWestern Energy Group pays an annual dividend of $2.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Avista pays an annual dividend of $1.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. NorthWestern Energy Group pays out 80.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Avista pays out 78.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Avista is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
NorthWestern Energy Group beats Avista on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get NorthWestern Energy Group News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for NWE and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding NWE 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.
NorthWestern Energy Group Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
