Head to Head Comparison: Northland Power (OTCMKTS:NPIFF) & Drax Group (OTCMKTS:DRXGF)

Drax Group (OTCMKTS:DRXGF) and Northland Power (OTCMKTS:NPIFF) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, risk, valuation and profitability.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

74.8% of Drax Group shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Drax Group pays an annual dividend of $0.18 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Northland Power pays an annual dividend of $0.51 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Drax Group pays out -59.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Northland Power pays out -63.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Northland Power is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Drax Group and Northland Power’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Drax Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
Northland Power	-11.70%	8.60%	2.78%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Drax Group and Northland Power”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Drax Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	($0.30)	-35.18
Northland Power	$1.71 billion	2.04	$198.38 million	($0.81)	-16.48

Northland Power has higher revenue and earnings than Drax Group. Drax Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Northland Power, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Drax Group and Northland Power, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Drax Group	0	0	0	0	0.00
Northland Power	0	3	5	0	2.63

Summary

Northland Power beats Drax Group on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Drax Group

Drax Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in renewable power generation in the United Kingdom. It operates through three segments: Pellet Production, Generation, and Customers. The Pellet Production segment produces and sells biomass pellets. The Generation segment provides renewable, dispatchable power, and system support services to the electricity grid. The Customers segment supplies electricity and gas to non-domestic customers. The company owns and operates Drax Power Station located in Selby, North Yorkshire; Cruachan Power Station, a pumped storage hydro station, with an installed capacity of 440 megawatts (MW) located in Argyll and Bute; and Lanark and Galloway hydro-electric power stations with an installed capacity of 126 MW located in southwest Scotland. It also owns and operates Daldowie fuel plant that processes sludge, a plant that converts it into dry low-odour fuel pellets. In addition, the company manufactures and sells compressed wood pellets; and supplies renewable electricity. Drax Group plc was incorporated in 2005 and is based in Selby, the United Kingdom.

About Northland Power

Northland Power Inc., an independent power producer, develops, builds, owns, and operates clean and green power projects in Canada, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Colombia, and internationally. The company produces electricity from renewable resources, such as wind and solar, as well as natural gas for sale under power purchase agreements and other revenue arrangements. It owned or had an economic interest 3.4 gigawatts of operating generating capacity. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.