Analyzing York Water (NASDAQ:YORW) & Veolia Environnement (OTCMKTS:VEOEY)

York Water (NASDAQ:YORW) and Veolia Environnement (OTCMKTS:VEOEY) are both utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, valuation, earnings, profitability and institutional ownership.

Volatility and Risk

York Water has a beta of 0.72, indicating that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Veolia Environnement has a beta of 1.12, indicating that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

York Water pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Veolia Environnement pays an annual dividend of $0.53 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. York Water pays out 64.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. York Water has raised its dividend for 27 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for York Water and Veolia Environnement, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
York Water	0	0	0	0	0.00
Veolia Environnement	1	0	0	2	3.00

Profitability

This table compares York Water and Veolia Environnement’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
York Water	25.91%	8.56%	3.13%
Veolia Environnement	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider and Institutional Ownership

49.9% of York Water shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.2% of Veolia Environnement shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of York Water shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Veolia Environnement shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares York Water and Veolia Environnement”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
York Water	$74.96 million	6.09	$20.33 million	$1.37	23.15
Veolia Environnement	$48.37 billion	0.51	$1.19 billion	N/A	N/A

Veolia Environnement has higher revenue and earnings than York Water.

About York Water

The York Water Company impounds, purifies, and distributes drinking water. It owns and operates three wastewater collection systems; ten wastewater collection and treatment systems; and two reservoirs, including Lake Williams and Lake Redman, which hold approximately 2.2 billion gallons of water. The company also operates a 15-mile pipeline from the Susquehanna River to Lake Redman; and owns satellite groundwater systems in York, Adams, and Lancaster Counties, as well as two impounding dams on primary system located in York and Springfield Townships. It serves customers in the fixtures and furniture, electrical machinery, food products, paper, ordnance units, textile products, air conditioning systems, laundry detergents, barbells, and motorcycle industries in 56 municipalities within four counties in south-central Pennsylvania. The York Water Company was incorporated in 1816 and is based in York, Pennsylvania.

About Veolia Environnement

Veolia Environnement SA designs and provides water, waste, and energy management solutions worldwide. It operates through France and Special Waste Europe; Europe excluding France; Rest of the World; Water Technologies; and Other segments. The company is involved in resource management; customer relationship management; drinking water treatment and distribution; wastewater treatment; design and construction of treatment and network infrastructure; and sale of water treatment equipment, technologies, and facilities. It provides waste collection, product recovery and waste-to-energy processing, including sale of recycled products; dismantling and remediation; hazardous waste processing; urban cleaning; and industrial maintenance and cleaning services. In addition, the company engages in the operation and maintenance of heating and cooling networks; optimization of industrial utilities, such as steam generation, cooling, electricity, compressed air; installation and maintenance of production equipment; development of energy services to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions of buildings; integrated services for building management, and the production of electricity from biomass, as well as provides thermal and multi-technical services. It serves industrial and service sector companies, public authorities, and individuals. The company was formerly known as Vivendi Environnement and changed its name to Veolia Environnement SA in January 2003. Veolia Environnement SA was founded in 1853 and is headquartered in Paris, France.