Critical Contrast: Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (YGE) & FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ:FCEL)

FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ: FCEL) and Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE:YGE) are both small-cap oils/energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

14.5% of FuelCell Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 3.6% of Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of FuelCell Energy shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for FuelCell Energy and Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FuelCell Energy	0	2	1	0	2.33
Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited	3	0	0	0	1.00

FuelCell Energy currently has a consensus target price of $2.00, suggesting a potential upside of 44.93%. Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited has a consensus target price of $3.30, suggesting a potential upside of 45.37%. Given Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited is more favorable than FuelCell Energy.

Volatility and Risk

FuelCell Energy has a beta of 1.83, indicating that its share price is 83% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited has a beta of 2.34, indicating that its share price is 134% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares FuelCell Energy and Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
FuelCell Energy	$83.61 million	0.98	-$36.29 million	($1.51)	-0.91
Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited	$1.08 billion	0.04	$49.01 million	($18.34)	-0.12

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited has higher revenue and earnings than FuelCell Energy. FuelCell Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares FuelCell Energy and Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FuelCell Energy	-60.75%	-44.42%	-14.99%
Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited	-31.08%	N/A	-5.70%

Summary

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited beats FuelCell Energy on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About FuelCell Energy

Fuelcell Energy, Inc. delivers fuel cell power solutions. The Company is engaged in designing, manufacturing, installing, operating and maintaining fuel cell power solutions. The Company also provides turnkey power generation solutions to the customers, including power plant installation, operations and maintenance. The Company’s segment is fuel cell power plant production and research. The Company offers its services to various sectors, including utility companies, municipalities, universities, government entities and a range of industrial and commercial enterprises. The Company, by utilizing its Direct FuelCell (DFC) plants, is commercializing a tri-generation distributed hydrogen configuration that generates electricity, heat and hydrogen for industrial and/or transportation uses, as well as a fuel cell carbon capture solution for coal or gas-fired power plants. The Company is also developing and commercializing solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) plants for sub-megawatt applications.

About Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited is a solar panel manufacturer. The Company’s manufacturing covers the photovoltaic value chain from ingot casting and wafering through solar cell production and solar panel assembly. The Company’s end products include photovoltaic (PV) modules and PV systems of different sizes and power outputs. The Company sells PV modules under its own brand names, Yingli and Yingli Solar, to PV system integrators and distributors located in various markets around the world, including China, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Algeria, Germany, France, South Africa, Turkey and Honduras. The Company’s products and services include the manufacture of polysilicon ingots and wafers, PV cells, PV modules and integrated PV systems, and the development and operation of solar projects. The Company produces approximately 800 kilogram multi-crystalline polysilicon ingots. The Company’s PV modules have output ranging from 250 to 340 watts.