Head to Head Comparison: Enphase Energy (ENPH) and SolarCity Corp (SCTY)

Enphase Energy (NASDAQ: ENPH) and SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY) are both oils/energy companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitabiliy, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends and valuation.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Enphase Energy and SolarCity Corp’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Enphase Energy	$313.22 million	0.23	-$44.98 million	($1.27)	-0.67
SolarCity Corp	N/A	N/A	N/A	($0.29)	-70.14

SolarCity Corp has higher revenue, but lower earnings than Enphase Energy. SolarCity Corp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Enphase Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Enphase Energy and SolarCity Corp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Enphase Energy	-22.98%	-757.76%	-36.10%
SolarCity Corp	-112.36%	22.92%	-10.69%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

26.2% of Enphase Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 40.0% of SolarCity Corp shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.4% of Enphase Energy shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 36.4% of SolarCity Corp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Enphase Energy has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SolarCity Corp has a beta of 1.98, suggesting that its stock price is 98% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Enphase Energy and SolarCity Corp, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Enphase Energy	0	5	3	0	2.38
SolarCity Corp	2	9	0	0	1.82

Enphase Energy presently has a consensus price target of $2.08, suggesting a potential upside of 146.58%. SolarCity Corp has a consensus price target of $27.00, suggesting a potential upside of 32.74%. Given Enphase Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Enphase Energy is more favorable than SolarCity Corp.

Summary

SolarCity Corp beats Enphase Energy on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Enphase Energy

Enphase Energy, Inc. is a provider of energy management solutions. The Company is engaged in designing, developing, manufacturing and selling microinverter systems for the solar photovoltaic industry. Its semiconductor-based microinverter system converts direct current (DC) electricity to alternating current (AC) electricity. Its microinverter system consists of three components: Enphase microinverters, an Envoy gateway and Enlighten cloud-based software. Its Enphase microinverters provide power conversion at the individual solar module level by a digital architecture that incorporates custom application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), specialized power electronics devices, and an embedded software subsystem. Envoy bi-directional communications gateway provides collecting and sending data to Enlighten software. Enlighten cloud-based software provides the capabilities to remotely monitor, manage, and maintain an individual system or a fleet of systems.

About SolarCity Corp

SolarCity Corporation is a United States-based solar provider. The Company is primarily engaged in the design, manufacture, installation and sale or lease of solar energy systems to residential and commercial customers, or sale of electricity generated by solar energy systems to customers. It operates through solar energy products and services segment. It integrates the sales, engineering, manufacturing, installation, monitoring, maintenance and financing of its distributed solar energy systems. It offers its customers the option to either purchase and own solar energy systems or to purchase the energy that its solar energy systems produce through various contractual arrangements. It installs solar energy system at its customer’s premises and charge the customer a monthly fee for the power that its system produces. Its products, services and technologies include solar energy systems, customer agreements, grid control/energy storage systems, Zep Solar mounting systems and software.