Head to Head Analysis: Entergy (ETR) and Its Peers

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) is one of 104 publicly-traded companies in the “Electric Utilities” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Entergy to similar companies based on the strength of its dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation and risk.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Entergy and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Entergy	$12.95 billion	$1.77 billion	25.74
Entergy Competitors	$14.47 billion	$1.54 billion	20.16

Entergy’s peers have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Entergy. Entergy is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Entergy and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Entergy	0	2	20	0	2.91
Entergy Competitors	1426	6544	5521	141	2.32

Entergy presently has a consensus price target of $121.57, suggesting a potential upside of 8.59%. As a group, “Electric Utilities” companies have a potential upside of 3.92%. Given Entergy’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Entergy is more favorable than its peers.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

88.1% of Entergy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.0% of shares of all “Electric Utilities” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Entergy shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.2% of shares of all “Electric Utilities” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Entergy and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Entergy	14.63%	11.44%	2.68%
Entergy Competitors	14.26%	9.78%	3.23%

Dividends

Entergy pays an annual dividend of $2.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Entergy pays out 58.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Electric Utilities” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.1% and pay out 64.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Entergy has increased its dividend for 10 consecutive years.

Risk and Volatility

Entergy has a beta of 0.44, suggesting that its share price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Entergy’s peers have a beta of -2.29, suggesting that their average share price is 329% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Entergy beats its peers on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

Entergy Company Profile

Entergy Corporation is an investor-owned energy company headquartered in New Orleans. Its primary business is providing regulated electric utility service to residential, commercial and industrial customers. Through its utility subsidiaries, Entergy serves communities in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Its operations include generating, transmitting and distributing electricity, with power produced from a mix of sources that includes nuclear energy. The company traces its corporate history to Middle South Utilities, which adopted the Entergy name in 1989.