Zeo Energy (NASDAQ:ZEO) & Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) Critical Review

Zeo Energy (NASDAQ:ZEO) and Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) are both energy companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Zeo Energy and Bloom Energy, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Zeo Energy	1	0	0	0	1.00
Bloom Energy	1	11	10	2	2.54

Bloom Energy has a consensus target price of $155.95, suggesting a potential downside of 33.57%. Given Bloom Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Bloom Energy is more favorable than Zeo Energy.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

77.0% of Bloom Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 56.2% of Zeo Energy shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.0% of Bloom Energy shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Zeo Energy and Bloom Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Zeo Energy	-20.20%	N/A	-26.80%
Bloom Energy	-4.37%	7.88%	1.74%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Zeo Energy and Bloom Energy”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Zeo Energy	$69.35 million	0.84	-$14.01 million	($0.74)	-1.36
Bloom Energy	$2.02 billion	32.54	-$88.43 million	($0.38)	-617.77

Zeo Energy has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Zeo Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Zeo Energy has a beta of 0.13, suggesting that its share price is 87% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bloom Energy has a beta of 3.18, suggesting that its share price is 218% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Bloom Energy beats Zeo Energy on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Zeo Energy

Zeo Energy Corp. provides residential solar energy systems, other energy efficient equipment, and related services in Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri, the United States. The company is involved in the selling and installing of residential solar energy systems that homeowners use electricity required to power their homes. Its residential solar energy systems comprise solar panels, inverters, and racking systems. It also offers insulation services, such as adding insulation to a home's attic or walls; energy efficiency equipment, including hybrid electric water heaters and swimming pool pumps; battery-based energy storage systems; and roofing services. Zeo Energy Corp. was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in New Port Richey, Florida.

About Bloom Energy

Bloom Energy Corporation designs, manufactures, sells, and installs solid-oxide fuel cell systems for on-site power generation in the United States and internationally. The company offers Bloom Energy Server, a solid oxide technology that converts fuel, such as natural gas, biogas, hydrogen, or a blend of these fuels into electricity through an electrochemical process without combustion. It sells its products through direct and indirect sales channels to utilities, data centers, agriculture, retail, hospitals, higher education, biotech, and manufacturing industries. The company was formerly known as Ion America Corp. and changed its name to Bloom Energy Corporation in 2006. Bloom Energy Corporation was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.