Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) vs. Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ:CLNE) Head-To-Head Review

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) and Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ:CLNE) are both small-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, risk and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Northwest Natural Gas and Clean Energy Fuels, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Northwest Natural Gas	0	1	1	0	2.50
Clean Energy Fuels	0	0	3	1	3.25

Northwest Natural Gas presently has a consensus price target of $48.00, indicating a potential upside of 20.83%. Clean Energy Fuels has a consensus price target of $3.75, indicating a potential upside of 84.73%. Given Clean Energy Fuels’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Clean Energy Fuels is more favorable than Northwest Natural Gas.

Volatility & Risk

Northwest Natural Gas has a beta of 0.55, suggesting that its stock price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Clean Energy Fuels has a beta of 2.65, suggesting that its stock price is 165% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Northwest Natural Gas and Clean Energy Fuels”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Northwest Natural Gas	$1.15 billion	1.39	$78.87 million	$2.52	15.76
Clean Energy Fuels	$415.86 million	1.08	-$83.07 million	($0.88)	-2.31

Northwest Natural Gas has higher revenue and earnings than Clean Energy Fuels. Clean Energy Fuels is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Northwest Natural Gas, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Northwest Natural Gas and Clean Energy Fuels’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Northwest Natural Gas	8.34%	8.60%	2.25%
Clean Energy Fuels	-47.99%	-26.37%	-15.13%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

75.1% of Northwest Natural Gas shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.9% of Clean Energy Fuels shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Northwest Natural Gas shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.3% of Clean Energy Fuels shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Northwest Natural Gas beats Clean Energy Fuels on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Northwest Natural Gas

Northwest Natural Holding Company, through its subsidiary, Northwest Natural Gas Company, provides regulated natural gas distribution services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the United States. The company operates a mist gas storage facility contracted to other utilities, third-party marketers, and electric generators; offers natural gas asset management services; and operates an appliance retail center. It also engages in gas storage, water and wastewater, non-regulated renewable natural gas, and other investment businesses. In addition, the company provides natural gas service in Oregon and southwest Washington; and water and wastewater connections. Northwest Natural Holding Company was founded in 1859 and is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

About Clean Energy Fuels

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. provides natural gas as alternative fuels for vehicle fleets and related fueling solutions in the United States and Canada. It supplies renewable natural gas (RNG), compressed natural gas (CNG), and liquefied natural gas (LNG) for medium and heavy-duty vehicles; and offers operation and maintenance services for public and private vehicle fleet customer stations. The company also designs, builds, operates, and maintains vehicle fueling stations; and sells and services compressors and other equipment that are used in RNG production and fueling stations. In addition, it transports and sells CNG, RNG, and LNG through virtual natural gas pipelines and interconnects; sells U.S. federal, state, and local government credits, such as RNG as a vehicle fuel, including Renewable Identification Numbers and Low Carbon Fuel Standards credits; and obtains federal, state, and local credits, grants, and incentives. Further, the company focuses on developing, owning, and operating dairy and other livestock waste RNG projects. It serves heavy-duty trucking, airports, refuse, public transit, industrial, and institutional energy users, as well as government fleets. Clean Energy Fuels Corp. was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Newport Beach, California.