Reviewing Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel (NYSE:ELPC) & NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG)

Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel (NYSE:ELPC) and NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.7% of NRG Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of NRG Energy shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel pays an annual dividend of $0.58 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. NRG Energy pays an annual dividend of $1.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. 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. NRG Energy pays out 223.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. NRG Energy has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel and NRG Energy, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel	0	2	1	1	2.75
NRG Energy	0	4	10	1	2.80

Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel currently has a consensus target price of $10.40, indicating a potential downside of 8.02%. NRG Energy has a consensus target price of $199.69, indicating a potential upside of 47.78%. Given NRG Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe NRG Energy is more favorable than Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel.

Profitability

This table compares Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel and NRG Energy’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
NRG Energy	0.74%	70.67%	4.95%

Risk & Volatility

Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel has a beta of -0.07, indicating that its stock price is 107% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NRG Energy has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel and NRG Energy”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	1.80	$424.24 million	$0.57	19.84
NRG Energy	$30.71 billion	0.93	$864.00 million	$0.85	158.98

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

Summary

NRG Energy beats Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel on 14 of the 17 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 NRG Energy

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.