Head to Head Comparison: Fortis (NYSE:FTS) & Nextera Energy Partners (NYSE:NEP)

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) and Nextera Energy Partners (NYSE:NEP) are both utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

Fortis has a beta of 0.48, suggesting that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nextera Energy Partners has a beta of 1.03, suggesting that its stock price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Fortis and Nextera Energy Partners”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fortis	$11.51 billion	1.96	$1.17 billion	$2.36	19.16
Nextera Energy Partners	$1.23 billion	0.00	-$10.00 million	($0.10)	N/A

Fortis has higher revenue and earnings than Nextera Energy Partners. Nextera Energy Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fortis, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Fortis pays an annual dividend of $1.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Nextera Energy Partners pays an annual dividend of $3.67 per share. Fortis pays out 72.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Nextera Energy Partners pays out -3,670.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Profitability

This table compares Fortis and Nextera Energy Partners’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fortis	14.12%	7.09%	2.34%
Nextera Energy Partners	-0.73%	1.34%	0.85%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

57.8% of Fortis shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.0% of Nextera Energy Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Nextera Energy Partners shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Fortis and Nextera Energy Partners, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fortis	2	2	0	0	1.50
Nextera Energy Partners	2	0	0	0	1.00

Nextera Energy Partners has a consensus price target of $10.00, suggesting a potential upside of 0.00%. Given Nextera Energy Partners’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Nextera Energy Partners is more favorable than Fortis.

Summary

Fortis beats Nextera Energy Partners on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Fortis

Fortis Inc. operates as an electric and gas utility company in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean countries. It generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 447,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 103,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,408 megawatts (MW), including 68 MW of solar capacity and 250 MV of wind capacity. The company also sells wholesale electricity to other entities in the western United States; owns gas-fired and hydroelectric generating capacity totaling 65 MW; and distributes natural gas to approximately 1,087,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in British Columbia, Canada. In addition, it owns and operates the electricity distribution system that serves approximately 592,000 customers in southern and central Alberta; owns four hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 225 MW; and provides operation, maintenance, and management services to five hydroelectric generating facilities. Further, the company distributes electricity in the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador with an installed generating capacity of 145 MW; and on Prince Edward Island with a generating capacity of 90 MW. Additionally, it provides integrated electric utility service to approximately 69,000 customers in Ontario; approximately 275,000 customers in Newfoundland and Labrador; approximately 34,000 customers on Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; and approximately 17,000 customers on certain islands in Turks and Caicos. It also holds long-term contracted generation assets in Belize consisting of 3 hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 51 MW; and the Aitken Creek natural gas storage facility. It also owns and operates approximately 90,500 circuit Kilometers (km) of distribution lines; and approximately 51,600 km of natural gas pipelines. Fortis Inc. was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in St. John's, Canada.

About Nextera Energy Partners

NextEra Energy Partners LP engages in the acquisition, management, and ownership of contracted clean energy projects with long-term cash flows. It owns interests in wind and solar projects in North America and natural gas infrastructure assets in Texas. The company was founded on March 6, 2014 and is headquartered in Juno Beach, FL.