AES (NYSE:AES) vs. Hawaiian Electric Industries (NYSE:HE) Head-To-Head Contrast

Hawaiian Electric Industries (NYSE:HE) and AES (NYSE:AES) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

59.9% of Hawaiian Electric Industries shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.1% of AES shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Hawaiian Electric Industries shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of AES shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Hawaiian Electric Industries and AES, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hawaiian Electric Industries	1	2	0	1	2.25
AES	0	8	2	0	2.20

Hawaiian Electric Industries presently has a consensus target price of $13.25, suggesting a potential downside of 12.17%. AES has a consensus target price of $24.09, suggesting a potential upside of 68.41%. Given AES’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe AES is more favorable than Hawaiian Electric Industries.

Profitability

This table compares Hawaiian Electric Industries and AES’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hawaiian Electric Industries	4.09%	9.82%	1.75%
AES	7.40%	19.93%	3.29%

Risk and Volatility

Hawaiian Electric Industries has a beta of 0.55, indicating that its stock price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AES has a beta of 1.03, indicating that its stock price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Hawaiian Electric Industries and AES”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hawaiian Electric Industries	$3.09 billion	0.84	$126.28 million	$0.71	21.25
AES	$12.23 billion	0.83	$910.00 million	$1.26	11.35

AES has higher revenue and earnings than Hawaiian Electric Industries. AES is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hawaiian Electric Industries, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

AES beats Hawaiian Electric Industries on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hawaiian Electric Industries

Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the electric utility businesses in the United States. It operates in three segments: Electric Utility, Bank, and Other. The Electric Utility segment engages in the production, purchase, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, Lanai, and Molokai. Its renewable energy sources and potential sources include wind, solar, photovoltaic, geothermal, wave, hydroelectric, municipal waste, and other biofuels. This segment serves suburban communities, resorts, the United States Armed Forces installations, and agricultural operations. The Bank segment operates a federally chartered savings bank that offers banking and other financial services to consumers and businesses, including savings and checking accounts; and loans comprising residential and commercial real estate, residential mortgage, construction and development, multifamily residential and commercial real estate, consumer, and commercial loans. The Other segment invests in non-regulated renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure in the State of Hawaii. Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.

About AES

The AES Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified power generation and utility company in the United States and internationally. The company owns and/or operates power plants to generate and sell power to customers, such as utilities, industrial users, and other intermediaries; owns and/or operates utilities to generate or purchase, distribute, transmit, and sell electricity to end-user customers in the residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental sectors; and generates and sells electricity on the wholesale market. It uses various fuels and technologies to generate electricity, such as coal, gas, hydro, wind, solar, and biomass, as well as renewables comprising energy storage and landfill gas. The company owns and/or operates a generation portfolio of approximately 34,596 megawatts and distributes power to 2.6 million customers. The company was formerly known as Applied Energy Services, Inc. and changed its name to The AES Corporation in April 2000. The AES Corporation was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.