Critical Survey: CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) and Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel (NYSE:ELPC)

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) and Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel (NYSE:ELPC) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

91.8% of CenterPoint Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of CenterPoint Energy shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for CenterPoint Energy and Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CenterPoint Energy	0	9	5	0	2.36
Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel	0	0	0	0	0.00

CenterPoint Energy currently has a consensus price target of $37.3750, suggesting a potential downside of 0.97%. Given CenterPoint Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe CenterPoint Energy is more favorable than Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel.

Dividends

CenterPoint Energy pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. CenterPoint Energy pays out 61.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel pays out 50.7% 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. CenterPoint Energy has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares CenterPoint Energy and Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CenterPoint Energy	10.42%	9.16%	2.26%
Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk & Volatility

CenterPoint Energy has a beta of 0.58, suggesting that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel has a beta of -0.09, suggesting that its share price is 109% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares CenterPoint Energy and Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CenterPoint Energy	$8.64 billion	2.85	$1.02 billion	$1.43	26.39
Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel	$4.20 billion	2.08	$759.71 million	$0.71	11.49

CenterPoint Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel. Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CenterPoint Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

CenterPoint Energy beats Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel on 15 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CenterPoint Energy

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. operates as a public utility holding company in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Electric and Natural Gas. The Electric segment includes electric transmission and distribution services to electric customers and electric generation assets, as well as optimizes assets in the wholesale power market. The Natural Gas segment engages in the intrastate natural gas sales, and natural gas transportation and distribution for residential, commercial, industrial and institutional customers in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, and Texas; permanent pipeline connections through interconnects with various interstate and intrastate pipeline companies; and provides maintenance and repair services of home appliances to customers in Minnesota and home repair protection plans to natural gas customers in Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, and Texas through a third party. It serves approximately 2,534,730 metered customers; owned 348 substations with transformer capacity of 79,719 megavolt amperes; and owned and operated 217 miles of intrastate pipeline in Louisiana and Texas. The company was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel

Companhia Paranaense de Energia – COPEL engages in the generation, transformation, distribution, and sale of electricity to industrial, residential, commercial, rural, and other customers in Brazil. The company operates through Power Generation and Transmission, Power Distribution, GAS, Power Sale, and Holding and Services segments. It is also involved in the piped natural gas distribution. The company operates hydroelectric, wind, and thermoelectric plants; and owns and operates transmission and distribution lines. It holds concessions to distribute electricity in municipalities in the State of Paraná and in the municipality of Porto União in the State of Santa Catarina. Companhia Paranaense de Energia COPEL was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Curitiba, Brazil.