Financial Contrast: AES (NYSE:AES) and Commerce Energy Group (OTCMKTS:CMNR)

Commerce Energy Group (OTCMKTS:CMNR) and AES (NYSE:AES) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, earnings, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

93.1% of AES shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Commerce Energy Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of AES shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Commerce Energy Group and AES, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Commerce Energy Group	0	0	0	0	0.00
AES	3	3	7	1	2.43

AES has a consensus price target of $24.00, suggesting a potential upside of 69.96%. Given AES’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe AES is more favorable than Commerce Energy Group.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Commerce Energy Group and AES”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Commerce Energy Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
AES	$12.09 billion	0.83	$1.68 billion	$1.60	8.83

AES has higher revenue and earnings than Commerce Energy Group.

Profitability

This table compares Commerce Energy Group and AES’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Commerce Energy Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
AES	8.42%	19.02%	3.01%

Risk and Volatility

Commerce Energy Group has a beta of -3.17, meaning that its share price is 417% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AES has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

AES beats Commerce Energy Group on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Commerce Energy Group

Commerce Energy Group Inc. through its subsidiaries provides electric power and natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial and institutional customers in California, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and Ohio. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Costa Mesa, California.

About AES

The AES Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified power generation and utility company in the United States and internationally. The company owns and/or operates power plants to generate and sell power to customers, such as utilities, industrial users, and other intermediaries; owns and/or operates utilities to generate or purchase, distribute, transmit, and sell electricity to end-user customers in the residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental sectors; and generates and sells electricity on the wholesale market. It uses various fuels and technologies to generate electricity, such as coal, gas, hydro, wind, solar, and biomass, as well as renewables comprising energy storage and landfill gas. The company owns and/or operates a generation portfolio of approximately 34,596 megawatts and distributes power to 2.6 million customers. The company was formerly known as Applied Energy Services, Inc. and changed its name to The AES Corporation in April 2000. The AES Corporation was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.