WTRG vs. SBS, CWT, AWR, AWK, PNW, EVRG, NI, LNT, AES, and BEP
Should you be buying Essential Utilities stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Essential Utilities include Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (SBS), California Water Service Group (CWT), American States Water (AWR), American Water Works (AWK), Pinnacle West Capital (PNW), Evergy (EVRG), NiSource (NI), Alliant Energy (LNT), AES (AES), and Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) and Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (NYSE:SBS) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, media sentiment, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, profitability and community ranking.
Essential Utilities has a net margin of 29.52% compared to Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP's net margin of 12.31%. Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP's return on equity of 10.45% beat Essential Utilities' return on equity.
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP received 201 more outperform votes than Essential Utilities when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.22% of users gave Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP an outperform vote while only 30.14% of users gave Essential Utilities an outperform vote.
Essential Utilities has a beta of 0.8, indicating that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP has a beta of 1.21, indicating that its stock price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Essential Utilities pays an annual dividend of $1.23 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP pays an annual dividend of $0.23 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Essential Utilities pays out 58.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP pays out 26.7% 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.
Essential Utilities currently has a consensus target price of $43.00, indicating a potential upside of 10.80%. Given Essential Utilities' higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Essential Utilities is more favorable than Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP.
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP has higher revenue and earnings than Essential Utilities. Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Essential Utilities, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
74.8% of Essential Utilities shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 10.6% of Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Essential Utilities shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP shares are held by 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, Essential Utilities had 22 more articles in the media than Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP. MarketBeat recorded 23 mentions for Essential Utilities and 1 mentions for Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP. Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP's average media sentiment score of 1.05 beat Essential Utilities' score of 0.43 indicating that Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP beats Essential Utilities on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding WTRG 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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