Head-To-Head Contrast: Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) & Next Fuel (OTCMKTS:NXFI)

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) and Next Fuel (OTCMKTS:NXFI) are both utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Northwest Natural Gas and Next Fuel’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Northwest Natural Gas	9.75%	8.33%	2.03%
Next Fuel	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Northwest Natural Gas and Next Fuel, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Northwest Natural Gas	0	2	3	1	2.83
Next Fuel	0	0	0	0	0.00

Northwest Natural Gas currently has a consensus price target of $55.25, indicating a potential upside of 12.30%. Given Northwest Natural Gas’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Northwest Natural Gas is more favorable than Next Fuel.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

75.1% of Northwest Natural Gas shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Northwest Natural Gas shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Northwest Natural Gas and Next Fuel”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Northwest Natural Gas	$1.29 billion	1.61	$113.32 million	$3.00	16.40
Next Fuel	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Northwest Natural Gas has higher revenue and earnings than Next Fuel.

Summary

Northwest Natural Gas beats Next Fuel on 10 of the 10 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 Next Fuel

Next Fuel, Inc. provides water consulting, filtration technology, and services to the oil and gas industry, as well as other industrial water users in agriculture and food processing in the United States. The company offers low energy input pervaporation technology to clean up water used in oil and natural gas production, including Frack drilling; carbon dioxide to product technology that targets the emerging market of carbon footprint elimination; and disc filtration technology to remove high concentrations of suspended solids with particle sizes ranging from 200 microns to 5 microns in size. It also provides water treatment solutions related to new and existing systems. Next Fuel, Inc. is based in Sheridan, Wyoming.