ACO.X vs. CU, ACO.Y, JE, BIP.UN, EMA, BEP.UN, BEPC, BIPC, NPI, and AQN
Should you be buying ATCO stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of ATCO include Canadian Utilities (CU), ATCO (ACO.Y), Just Energy Group (JE), Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP.UN), Emera (EMA), Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP.UN), Brookfield Renewable (BEPC), Brookfield Infrastructure (BIPC), Northland Power (NPI), and Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
ATCO (TSE:ACO.X) and Canadian Utilities (TSE:CU) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, valuation, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and community ranking.
Canadian Utilities has lower revenue, but higher earnings than ATCO. ATCO is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Canadian Utilities, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, ATCO and ATCO both had 2 articles in the media. ATCO's average media sentiment score of 0.51 beat Canadian Utilities' score of 0.00 indicating that ATCO is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Canadian Utilities has a net margin of 17.49% compared to ATCO's net margin of 8.75%. Canadian Utilities' return on equity of 9.25% beat ATCO's return on equity.
Canadian Utilities received 218 more outperform votes than ATCO when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 59.72% of users gave Canadian Utilities an outperform vote while only 46.39% of users gave ATCO an outperform vote.
ATCO currently has a consensus target price of C$45.92, suggesting a potential upside of 16.19%. Canadian Utilities has a consensus target price of C$35.43, suggesting a potential upside of 13.99%. Given ATCO's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe ATCO is more favorable than Canadian Utilities.
27.9% of ATCO shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 14.7% of Canadian Utilities shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of ATCO shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 38.0% of Canadian Utilities shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
ATCO pays an annual dividend of C$1.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Canadian Utilities pays an annual dividend of C$1.81 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.8%. ATCO pays out 53.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Canadian Utilities pays out 84.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.
ATCO has a beta of 0.67, meaning that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Canadian Utilities has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
ATCO beats Canadian 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 ACO.X 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 TSE 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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ACO.X vs. The Competition
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