Contrasting Enlight Renewable Energy (NASDAQ:ENLT) & AES (NYSE:AES)

AES (NYSE:AES) and Enlight Renewable Energy (NASDAQ:ENLT) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares AES and Enlight Renewable Energy”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AES	$12.23 billion	0.87	$910.00 million	$2.62	5.70
Enlight Renewable Energy	$582.26 million	13.73	$132.10 million	$0.62	108.73

AES has higher revenue and earnings than Enlight Renewable Energy. AES is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Enlight Renewable Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares AES and Enlight Renewable Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AES	14.30%	20.69%	3.62%
Enlight Renewable Energy	12.35%	3.52%	0.86%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.1% of AES shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 38.9% of Enlight Renewable Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of AES shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

AES has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Enlight Renewable Energy has a beta of 1.7, suggesting that its stock price is 70% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for AES and Enlight Renewable Energy, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AES	0	7	0	0	2.00
Enlight Renewable Energy	2	2	4	1	2.44

AES currently has a consensus target price of $15.83, suggesting a potential upside of 6.09%. Enlight Renewable Energy has a consensus target price of $74.71, suggesting a potential upside of 10.84%. Given Enlight Renewable Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Enlight Renewable Energy is more favorable than AES.

Summary

AES beats Enlight Renewable Energy on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AES

The AES Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified power generation and utility company in the United States and internationally. The company owns and/or operates power plants to generate and sell power to customers, such as utilities, industrial users, and other intermediaries; owns and/or operates utilities to generate or purchase, distribute, transmit, and sell electricity to end-user customers in the residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental sectors; and generates and sells electricity on the wholesale market. It uses various fuels and technologies to generate electricity, such as coal, gas, hydro, wind, solar, and biomass, as well as renewables comprising energy storage and landfill gas. The company owns and/or operates a generation portfolio of approximately 34,596 megawatts and distributes power to 2.6 million customers. The company was formerly known as Applied Energy Services, Inc. and changed its name to The AES Corporation in April 2000. The AES Corporation was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

About Enlight Renewable Energy

Enlight Renewable Energy Ltd operates a renewable energy platform in Israel, Central-Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and the United States. The company develops, finances, constructs, owns, and operates utility-scale renewable energy projects. It develops wind energy and solar energy projects, as well as energy storage projects. The company was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Rosh Haayin, Israel.