Analyzing Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel (NYSE:ELPC) and Korea Electric Power (NYSE:KEP)

Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel (NYSE:ELPC) and Korea Electric Power (NYSE:KEP) are both utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel and Korea Electric Power, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel	0	2	1	1	2.75
Korea Electric Power	1	3	0	0	1.75

Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel currently has a consensus target price of $10.40, indicating a potential downside of 10.77%. Given Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel is more favorable than Korea Electric Power.

Profitability

This table compares Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel and Korea Electric Power’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel	N/A	N/A	N/A
Korea Electric Power	8.80%	18.76%	3.42%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel and Korea Electric Power”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel	$4.68 billion	1.86	$424.24 million	$0.57	20.45
Korea Electric Power	$68.57 billion	0.24	$5.98 billion	$4.70	2.75

Korea Electric Power has higher revenue and earnings than Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel. Korea Electric Power is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel has a beta of -0.07, indicating that its share price is 107% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Korea Electric Power has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel pays an annual dividend of $0.58 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Korea Electric Power pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel pays out 101.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Korea Electric Power pays out 11.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Korea Electric Power beats Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel

Companhia Paranaense de Energia – COPEL engages in the generation, transformation, distribution, and sale of electricity to industrial, residential, commercial, rural, and other customers in Brazil. The company operates through Power Generation and Transmission, Power Distribution, GAS, Power Sale, and Holding and Services segments. It is also involved in the piped natural gas distribution. The company operates hydroelectric, wind, and thermoelectric plants; and owns and operates transmission and distribution lines. It holds concessions to distribute electricity in municipalities in the State of Paraná and in the municipality of Porto União in the State of Santa Catarina. Companhia Paranaense de Energia COPEL was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Curitiba, Brazil.

About Korea Electric Power

Korea Electric Power Corporation, an integrated electric utility company, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in South Korea and internationally. The company operates through Transmission and Distribution, Nuclear Power Generation, Thermal Power Generation, and Others segments. It generates power from nuclear, coal, oil, liquefied natural gas, internal combustion, combined-cycle, integrated gasification combined cycle, hydro, wind, solar, fuel cell, biogas, and other sources. As of December 31, 2022, the company had a total of 770 generation units, including nuclear, thermal, hydroelectric, and internal combustion units with an installed generation capacity of 82,723 megawatts; transmission system consisted of 35,451 circuit kilometers of lines of 765 kilovolts and others, including high-voltage direct current lines, as well as 895 substations with an installed transformer capacity of 347,426 megavolt-amperes; and distribution system included 139,265 megavolt-amperes of transformer capacity and 10,084,051 units of support with a total line length of 535,241 circuit kilometers. The company provides electricity to residential, commercial, educational, industrial, agricultural, street lighting, and overnight power usage. It also provides engineering and construction services for utility plant and others; utility plant maintenance, electric power information technology, resources development, facility maintenance, electric meter reading, and security services; and engages in nuclear fuel, fly ashes recycling, utility plants construction and operation, and wood pellet utilization businesses. Korea Electric Power Corporation was founded in 1898 and is headquartered in Naju-si, South Korea.