Critical Analysis: Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (BEP) vs. Sky Solar Holdings (SKYS)

Sky Solar Holdings (NASDAQ: SKYS) and Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (NYSE:BEP) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, earnings, dividends, profitabiliy and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

Sky Solar Holdings has a beta of 1.78, indicating that its stock price is 78% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. has a beta of 0.25, indicating that its stock price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sky Solar Holdings and Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P.’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sky Solar Holdings	$65.93 million	1.10	$19.01 million	$0.07	19.79
Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P.	$2.46 billion	4.22	$1.36 billion	N/A	N/A

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. has higher revenue and earnings than Sky Solar Holdings.

Profitability

This table compares Sky Solar Holdings and Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P.’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sky Solar Holdings	4.72%	-2.47%	-0.70%
Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P.	2.82%	0.75%	0.33%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.4% of Sky Solar Holdings shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.2% of Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. shares are owned by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. pays an annual dividend of $1.87 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. Sky Solar Holdings does not pay a dividend. Sky Solar Holdings has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Sky Solar Holdings and Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P., as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sky Solar Holdings	0	1	0	0	2.00
Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P.	0	6	3	0	2.33

Sky Solar Holdings presently has a consensus price target of $1.30, indicating a potential downside of 6.14%. Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. has a consensus price target of $34.57, indicating a potential downside of 1.22%. Given Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P.’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. is more favorable than Sky Solar Holdings.

Summary

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. beats Sky Solar Holdings on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sky Solar Holdings

Sky Solar Holdings, Ltd. is an investment holding company. The Company is an independent power producer (IPP) engaged in developing, owning and operating solar parks. The Company focuses on the downstream solar market and develops projects primarily in Asia, South America, Europe and North America. Its subsidiaries are engaged in activities, such as selling electricity generated from solar parks owned by the Company as IPP; pipeline (including obtaining permits required for solar power projects and sourcing of solar modules), and providing engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services ; providing operating and maintenance (O&M) services for solar parks; sales of solar modules, and building and transferring of solar parks (BT). The Company has developed over 270 solar parks with an aggregate capacity of approximately 252.8 megawatts (MW). It has over 1.3 gigawatts (GW) of solar projects in various stages of development in countries, such as Chile, Uruguay, Japan and Canada.

About Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P.

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P., formerly Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners L.P., is the owner and operator of a portfolio of assets that generate electricity from renewable resources. The Company operates as a pure-play renewable power platform. Its segments include Hydroelectric, Wind, Other and Corporate. It operates renewable power generating assets, which include conventional hydroelectric facilities and wind facilities located in North America, Colombia, Brazil and Europe. It also operates approximately four biomass facilities and three Co-gen facilities. It owns approximately 10,730 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity and an over 6,000 MW development pipeline diversified across 15 power markets in North America, Colombia, Brazil and Europe. This portfolio includes approximately 217 hydroelectric generating stations on over 82 river systems and approximately 38 wind facilities. Its portfolio also includes over 3,000 MW of medium to long-term development projects.