Reviewing Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel (NYSE:ELPC) and Vistra (NYSE:VST)

Vistra (NYSE:VST) and Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel (NYSE:ELPC) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Vistra and Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vistra	0	3	12	4	3.05
Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel	0	1	0	0	2.00

Vistra currently has a consensus price target of $231.40, indicating a potential upside of 38.89%. Given Vistra’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Vistra is more favorable than Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel.

Profitability

This table compares Vistra and Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vistra	6.70%	64.04%	4.45%
Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk & Volatility

Vistra has a beta of 1.41, indicating that its stock price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel has a beta of 0.03, indicating that its stock price is 97% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Vistra and Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vistra	$17.22 billion	3.28	$2.66 billion	$2.77	60.14
Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel	$22.41 billion	0.32	$379.58 million	$0.51	18.68

Vistra has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel. Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Vistra, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

90.9% of Vistra shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Vistra shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Vistra pays an annual dividend of $0.91 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel pays an annual dividend of $0.69 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.2%. Vistra pays out 32.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel pays out 135.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Vistra has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years.

Summary

Vistra beats Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel on 16 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vistra

Vistra Corp., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated retail electricity and power generation company. The company operates through six segments: Retail, Texas, East, West, Sunset, and Asset Closure. It retails electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers across states in the United States and the District of Columbia. In addition, the company is involved in the electricity generation, wholesale energy purchases and sales, commodity risk management, fuel production, and fuel logistics management activities. It serves approximately 4 million customers with a generation capacity of approximately 37,000 megawatts with a portfolio of natural gas, nuclear, coal, solar, and battery energy storage facilities. The company was formerly known as Vistra Energy Corp. and changed its name to Vistra Corp. in July 2020. Vistra Corp. was founded in 1882 and is based in Irving, Texas.

About Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel

Companhia Paranaense de Energia – COPEL engages in the generation, transformation, distribution, and sale of electricity to industrial, residential, commercial, rural, and other customers in Brazil. The company operates through Power Generation and Transmission, Power Distribution, GAS, Power Sale, and Holding and Services segments. It is also involved in the piped natural gas distribution. The company operates hydroelectric, wind, and thermoelectric plants; and owns and operates transmission and distribution lines. It holds concessions to distribute electricity in municipalities in the State of Paraná and in the municipality of Porto União in the State of Santa Catarina. Companhia Paranaense de Energia COPEL was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Curitiba, Brazil.