Financial Survey: UGI (UGI) vs. The Competition

UGI (NYSE:UGI) is one of 17 public companies in the “UTIL – GAS DISTR” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare UGI to related companies based on the strength of its profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for UGI and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
UGI	0	1	4	0	2.80
UGI Competitors	431	1124	805	35	2.19

UGI currently has a consensus target price of $44.50, suggesting a potential upside of 23.38%. As a group, “UTIL – GAS DISTR” companies have a potential upside of 0.91%. Given UGI’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe UGI is more favorable than its competitors.

Dividends

UGI pays an annual dividend of $1.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. UGI pays out 55.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “UTIL – GAS DISTR” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.8% and pay out 57.2% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. UGI has increased its dividend for 37 consecutive years. UGI is clearly a better dividend stock than its competitors, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

82.3% of UGI shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.1% of shares of all “UTIL – GAS DISTR” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of UGI shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 8.4% of shares of all “UTIL – GAS DISTR” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares UGI and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
UGI	8.17%	14.46%	4.57%
UGI Competitors	7.33%	5.38%	1.30%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares UGI and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
UGI	$7.29 billion	$678.00 million	13.31
UGI Competitors	$10.80 billion	$444.63 million	18.51

UGI’s competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than UGI. UGI is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Volatility & Risk

UGI has a beta of 1.05, meaning that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UGI’s competitors have a beta of 0.67, meaning that their average stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

UGI beats its competitors on 11 of the 15 factors compared.

UGI Company Profile

UGI Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, distributes, stores, transports, and markets energy products and related services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: AmeriGas Propane, UGI International, Midstream & Marketing, and UGI Utilities. It distributes propane to approximately 1.3 million residential, commercial/industrial, motor fuel, agricultural, and wholesale customers through 1,400 propane distribution locations. The company distributes liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) to residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, wholesale and automobile fuel customers; and provides logistics, storage, and other services to third-party LPG distributors. In addition, it engages in the retail sale of natural gas, liquid fuels, and electricity to approximately 12,400 residential, commercial, and industrial customers at 42,000 locations. Further, the company distributes natural gas to approximately 677,000 customers in eastern and central Pennsylvania counties through its distribution system of approximately 12,500 miles of gas mains; and supplies electricity to approximately 62,600 customers in northeastern Pennsylvania through 2,560 miles of lines and 14 substations. Additionally, it operates electric generation facilities, which include coal-fired, landfill gas-fueled, solar-powered, and natural gas-fueled facilities; a natural gas liquefaction, storage, and vaporization facility; propane storage and propane-air mixing stations; and rail transshipment terminals. It manages natural gas pipeline and storage contracts; develops, owns, and operates pipelines, gathering infrastructure, and gas storage facilities. UGI Corporation was incorporated in 1882 and is headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.