NextEra Energy (NEE) & Azure Power Global (AZRE) Critical Contrast

Azure Power Global (NYSE: AZRE) and NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) are both oils/energy companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, profitabiliy and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Azure Power Global and NextEra Energy, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Azure Power Global	0	0	3	0	3.00
NextEra Energy	0	1	8	0	2.89

Azure Power Global presently has a consensus price target of $22.00, indicating a potential upside of 51.83%. NextEra Energy has a consensus price target of $150.56, indicating a potential upside of 2.59%. Given Azure Power Global’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Azure Power Global is more favorable than NextEra Energy.

Profitability

This table compares Azure Power Global and NextEra Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Azure Power Global	-34.55%	-37.63%	-3.20%
NextEra Energy	24.26%	11.88%	3.40%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Azure Power Global and NextEra Energy’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Azure Power Global	$65.00 million	5.78	$46.61 million	($5.48)	-2.64
NextEra Energy	$16.88 billion	4.08	$8.30 billion	$8.73	16.81

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

45.5% of Azure Power Global shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.7% of NextEra Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of NextEra Energy shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

NextEra Energy pays an annual dividend of $3.93 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Azure Power Global does not pay a dividend. NextEra Energy pays out 45.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NextEra Energy has raised its dividend for 7 consecutive years.

Summary

NextEra Energy beats Azure Power Global on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Azure Power Global

Azure Power Global Limited is an India-based power producer. The Company sells solar power in India on long term fixed price contracts to its customers. The Company is also developing micro-grid applications for the highly fragmented and underserved electricity market in India. The Company operates approximately 20 utility scale projects and several commercial rooftop projects with a combined rated capacity of approximately 240 megawatts. The Company’s services include design, engineering and construction of grid integrated solar installations; off grid solar installations for villages, hamlets and remote areas; turnkey solar installations for commercial and residential complexes on roof tops, as back up and alternate source, and operation and maintenance of solar installations. The Company’s projects include Project Punjab, Rajasthan Projects, Gandhinagar Smart City Rooftop Project and Micro-Grids in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

About NextEra Energy

NextEra Energy, Inc. (NEE) is a holding company. The Company is an electric power companies in North America and, through its subsidiary NextEra Energy Resources, LLC (NEER) and its affiliated entities, is the generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun. NEE also owns and/or operates generation, transmission and distribution facilities to support its services to retail and wholesale customers, and has investments in gas infrastructure assets. Its segments include FPL and NEER. Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) is a rate-regulated electric utility engaged primarily in the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electric energy in Florida. NEER is a diversified clean energy company with a business strategy that emphasizes the development, acquisition and operation of long-term contracted assets with a focus on renewable projects. NEER owns, develops, constructs, manages and operates electric generation facilities in wholesale energy markets.