Comparing NRG Energy (NRG) and Its Peers

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) is one of 76 publicly-traded companies in the “UTIL – ELEC PWR” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare NRG Energy to similar companies based on the strength of its risk, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.7% of NRG Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.7% of shares of all “UTIL – ELEC PWR” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of NRG Energy shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.2% of shares of all “UTIL – ELEC PWR” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares NRG Energy and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NRG Energy	2.81%	109.48%	6.55%
NRG Energy Competitors	7.72%	9.91%	1.85%

Dividends

NRG Energy pays an annual dividend of $1.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. NRG Energy pays out 48.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “UTIL – ELEC PWR” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.1% and pay out 64.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. NRG Energy has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for NRG Energy and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NRG Energy	1	3	11	1	2.75
NRG Energy Competitors	1836	7461	6835	182	2.33

NRG Energy presently has a consensus price target of $198.43, indicating a potential upside of 31.41%. As a group, “UTIL – ELEC PWR” companies have a potential upside of 8.14%. Given NRG Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe NRG Energy is more favorable than its competitors.

Volatility & Risk

NRG Energy has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NRG Energy’s competitors have a beta of -1.67, indicating that their average share price is 267% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares NRG Energy and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
NRG Energy	$30.71 billion	$864.00 million	38.32
NRG Energy Competitors	$1,468.84 billion	$1.51 billion	20.57

NRG Energy’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than NRG Energy. NRG Energy is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

NRG Energy beats its competitors on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

NRG Energy Company Profile

NRG Energy, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy and home services company in the United States and Canada. It operates through Texas; East; West/Services/Other; Vivint Smart Home; and Corporate Activities segments. The company produces and sells electricity generated using coal, oil, solar, and battery storage; natural gas; and a cloud-based home platform, including hardware, software, sales, installation, customer service, technical support, and professional monitoring solutions. It offers retail electricity and energy management, line and surge protection products, HVAC installation, repair and maintenance, home protection products, carbon offsets, back-up power stations, portable power, portable solar, and portable lighting; retail services comprising demand response, commodity sales, energy efficiency, and energy management solutions; and system power, distributed generation, renewable and low-carbon products, carbon management and specialty services, backup generation, storage and distributed solar, and energy advisory services. In addition, the company trades in power, natural gas, and related commodities; environmental products; weather products; and financial products, including forwards, futures, options, and swaps. It offers its products and services under the NRG, Reliant, Direct Energy, Green Mountain Energy, and Vivint. It serves residential, commercial, government, industrial, and wholesale customers. NRG Energy, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.