Reviewing Unitil (NYSE:UTL) & Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE:BEP)

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) and Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE:BEP) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

76.8% of Unitil shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.2% of Brookfield Renewable Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of Unitil shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Unitil has a beta of 0.32, meaning that its stock price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brookfield Renewable Partners has a beta of 1.09, meaning that its stock price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Unitil and Brookfield Renewable Partners, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Unitil	0	5	0	0	2.00
Brookfield Renewable Partners	0	5	11	0	2.69

Unitil presently has a consensus target price of $56.50, suggesting a potential upside of 12.99%. Brookfield Renewable Partners has a consensus target price of $37.71, suggesting a potential upside of 3.07%. Given Unitil’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Unitil is more favorable than Brookfield Renewable Partners.

Profitability

This table compares Unitil and Brookfield Renewable Partners’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Unitil	9.60%	9.89%	2.89%
Brookfield Renewable Partners	8.28%	1.57%	0.53%

Dividends

Unitil pays an annual dividend of $1.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Brookfield Renewable Partners pays an annual dividend of $1.57 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Unitil pays out 60.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Brookfield Renewable Partners pays out -506.5% 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. Unitil has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years and Brookfield Renewable Partners has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Brookfield Renewable Partners is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Unitil and Brookfield Renewable Partners”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Unitil	$536.00 million	1.68	$50.20 million	$3.16	15.82
Brookfield Renewable Partners	$6.41 billion	1.73	$3.00 million	($0.31)	-118.03

Unitil has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Brookfield Renewable Partners. Brookfield Renewable Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Unitil, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Unitil beats Brookfield Renewable Partners on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Unitil

Unitil Corporation, a public utility holding company, engages in the distribution of electricity and natural gas. It operates through two segments, Utility Electric Operations, Utility Gas Operations. The company distributes electricity in the southeastern seacoast and state capital regions of New Hampshire, and the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts; and distributes natural gas in southeastern New Hampshire and portions of southern and central Maine, including the city of Portland and the Lewiston-Auburn area, as well as electricity and natural gas in the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts. It also operates 86 miles of interstate underground natural gas transmission pipeline that provides interstate natural gas pipeline access and transportation services primarily in Maine and New Hampshire. In addition, the company provides real estate management services. It serves approximately 108,100 electric customers and 87,500 natural gas customers. Unitil Corporation was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Hampton, New Hampshire.

About Brookfield Renewable Partners

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. owns a portfolio of renewable power generating facilities primarily in North America, Colombia, and Brazil. The company generates electricity through hydroelectric, wind, solar, distributed generation, and pumped storage, as well as renewable natural gas, carbon capture and storage, recycling, cogeneration biomass, nuclear services, and power transformation. Brookfield Renewable Partners Limited operates as the general partner of Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. The company was formerly known as Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners L.P. and changed its name to Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. in May 2016. Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. was founded in 1999 and is based in Toronto, Canada. Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P operates as a subsidiary of Brookfield Corporation.