Head to Head Review: AES (NYSE:AES) and Summer Energy (OTCMKTS:SUME)

Summer Energy (OTCMKTS:SUME) and AES (NYSE:AES) are both utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

93.1% of AES shares are owned by institutional investors. 56.8% of Summer Energy shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of AES shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Summer Energy and AES”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Summer Energy	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
AES	$12.23 billion	0.83	$910.00 million	$1.26	11.27

AES has higher revenue and earnings than Summer Energy.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Summer Energy and AES, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Summer Energy	0	0	0	0	0.00
AES	0	7	3	0	2.30

AES has a consensus price target of $24.27, suggesting a potential upside of 70.99%. Given AES’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe AES is more favorable than Summer Energy.

Volatility and Risk

Summer Energy has a beta of -163.68, meaning that its stock price is 16,468% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AES has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Summer Energy	N/A	N/A	N/A
AES	7.40%	19.93%	3.29%

Summary

AES beats Summer Energy on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Summer Energy

Summer Energy Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a retail electric provider in Texas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Illinois. It procures wholesale energy and resells to commercial and residential customers. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

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.