Critical Comparison: Talen Energy (TLN) and Its Competitors

Talen Energy (NASDAQ:TLN) is one of 106 public companies in the “Electric services” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Talen Energy to similar businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Talen Energy and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Talen Energy	0	0	9	0	3.00
Talen Energy Competitors	1077	4773	4629	94	2.35

Talen Energy currently has a consensus price target of $210.33, indicating a potential downside of 1.74%. As a group, “Electric services” companies have a potential upside of 1.40%. Given Talen Energy’s competitors higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Talen Energy has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares Talen Energy and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Talen Energy	50.48%	8.59%	3.13%
Talen Energy Competitors	0.96%	7.17%	1.30%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.4% of Talen Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.0% of shares of all “Electric services” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Talen Energy shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.3% of shares of all “Electric services” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Talen Energy and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Talen Energy	$4.23 billion	$613.00 million	11.46
Talen Energy Competitors	$10.89 billion	$583.49 million	4.93

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

Summary

Talen Energy beats its competitors on 7 of the 12 factors compared.

Talen Energy Company Profile

Talen Energy Corporation is a U.S.-based energy and power generation company. The Company owns or controls approximately 16,000 megawatts of capacity in wholesale power markets, principally in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southwest regions of the United States. The Company generates and sells electricity, capacity and related products from power plants that use fuel sources, such as nuclear, natural gas and coal. The Company’s Susquehanna nuclear power plant has approximately two boiling water reactors with a combined capacity of over 2,600 megawatts. Its fossil fuel plants are located in Athens, Barney Davis, Bayonne, Brandon Shores, Brunner Island, Camden, Colstrip and Dartmouth, among others. It has an art energy trading center located in Allentown, Pennsylvania (PA), where it manages asset load obligations, fuel supply, capacity and related products, and all supporting physical or financial transactions for its electric generation portfolio.