SJW vs. MSEX, AWR, CWT, YORW, TDS, VEON, NWN, TAC, SPH, and KEN
Should you be buying SJW Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of SJW Group include Middlesex Water (MSEX), American States Water (AWR), California Water Service Group (CWT), York Water (YORW), Telephone and Data Systems (TDS), VEON (VEON), Northwest Natural (NWN), TransAlta (TAC), Suburban Propane Partners (SPH), and Kenon (KEN). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
SJW Group (NYSE:SJW) and Middlesex Water (NASDAQ:MSEX) are both small-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, community ranking, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.
84.3% of SJW Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.5% of Middlesex Water shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of SJW Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Middlesex Water shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
SJW Group has higher revenue and earnings than Middlesex Water. SJW Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Middlesex Water, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, SJW Group had 5 more articles in the media than Middlesex Water. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for SJW Group and 0 mentions for Middlesex Water. SJW Group's average media sentiment score of 0.10 beat Middlesex Water's score of 0.00 indicating that SJW Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.
SJW Group received 159 more outperform votes than Middlesex Water when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.61% of users gave SJW Group an outperform vote while only 61.44% of users gave Middlesex Water an outperform vote.
Middlesex Water has a net margin of 18.96% compared to SJW Group's net margin of 12.48%. Middlesex Water's return on equity of 7.61% beat SJW Group's return on equity.
SJW Group presently has a consensus price target of $66.00, indicating a potential upside of 17.44%. Middlesex Water has a consensus price target of $59.00, indicating a potential upside of 8.78%. Given SJW Group's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe SJW Group is more favorable than Middlesex Water.
SJW Group pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Middlesex Water pays an annual dividend of $1.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. SJW Group pays out 60.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Middlesex Water pays out 73.9% 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. SJW Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
SJW Group has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Middlesex Water has a beta of 0.74, indicating that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
SJW Group beats Middlesex Water on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding SJW 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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