Head to Head Review: Hawaiian Electric Industries (NYSE:HE) & Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG)

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) and Hawaiian Electric Industries (NYSE:HE) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Evergy and Hawaiian Electric Industries”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Evergy	$6.09 billion	3.11	$855.60 million	$3.94	20.87
Hawaiian Electric Industries	$3.28 billion	0.58	$126.28 million	$1.30	8.41

Evergy has higher revenue and earnings than Hawaiian Electric Industries. Hawaiian Electric Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Evergy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Evergy and Hawaiian Electric Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Evergy	15.19%	9.20%	2.76%
Hawaiian Electric Industries	6.89%	7.90%	1.48%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

87.2% of Evergy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 59.9% of Hawaiian Electric Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of Evergy shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Hawaiian Electric Industries shares are held by company 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.

Dividends

Evergy pays an annual dividend of $2.78 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Hawaiian Electric Industries pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.2%. Evergy pays out 70.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hawaiian Electric Industries pays out 110.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Evergy has raised its dividend for 20 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Evergy and Hawaiian Electric Industries, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Evergy	0	3	8	0	2.73
Hawaiian Electric Industries	3	2	0	0	1.40

Evergy presently has a consensus target price of $90.60, indicating a potential upside of 10.17%. Hawaiian Electric Industries has a consensus target price of $10.25, indicating a potential downside of 6.24%. Given Evergy’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Evergy is more favorable than Hawaiian Electric Industries.

Risk & Volatility

Evergy has a beta of 0.53, meaning that its share price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hawaiian Electric Industries has a beta of 0.48, meaning that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Evergy beats Hawaiian Electric Industries on 16 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Evergy

Evergy, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in the United States. The company generates electricity through coal, landfill gas, uranium, and natural gas and oil sources, as well as solar, wind, other renewable sources. It serves residences, commercial firms, industrials, municipalities, and other electric utilities. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.

About Hawaiian Electric Industries

Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the electric utility businesses in the United States. It operates in three segments: Electric Utility, Bank, and Other. The Electric Utility segment engages in the production, purchase, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, Lanai, and Molokai. Its renewable energy sources and potential sources include wind, solar, photovoltaic, geothermal, wave, hydroelectric, municipal waste, and other biofuels. This segment serves suburban communities, resorts, the United States Armed Forces installations, and agricultural operations. The Bank segment operates a federally chartered savings bank that offers banking and other financial services to consumers and businesses, including savings and checking accounts; and loans comprising residential and commercial real estate, residential mortgage, construction and development, multifamily residential and commercial real estate, consumer, and commercial loans. The Other segment invests in non-regulated renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure in the State of Hawaii. Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.