Critical Comparison: Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN) vs. Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE:BEP)

Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE:BEP) and Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN) are both utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Brookfield Renewable Partners has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sunrun has a beta of 2.44, indicating that its stock price is 144% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

63.2% of Brookfield Renewable Partners shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.7% of Sunrun shares are held by institutional investors. 3.5% of Sunrun shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Brookfield Renewable Partners and Sunrun’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Brookfield Renewable Partners	4.50%	0.84%	0.29%
Sunrun	11.59%	9.59%	1.77%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Brookfield Renewable Partners and Sunrun, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Brookfield Renewable Partners	0	6	10	0	2.62
Sunrun	2	7	12	0	2.48

Brookfield Renewable Partners currently has a consensus target price of $37.14, suggesting a potential upside of 31.61%. Sunrun has a consensus target price of $14.39, suggesting a potential upside of 90.09%. Given Sunrun’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Sunrun is more favorable than Brookfield Renewable Partners.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Brookfield Renewable Partners and Sunrun”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Brookfield Renewable Partners	$6.41 billion	1.33	$3.00 million	($0.46)	-61.35
Sunrun	$2.96 billion	0.62	$449.95 million	$1.48	5.11

Sunrun has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Brookfield Renewable Partners. Brookfield Renewable Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sunrun, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Sunrun beats Brookfield Renewable Partners on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Brookfield Renewable Partners

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. owns a portfolio of renewable power generating facilities primarily in North America, Colombia, and Brazil. The company generates electricity through hydroelectric, wind, solar, distributed generation, and pumped storage, as well as renewable natural gas, carbon capture and storage, recycling, cogeneration biomass, nuclear services, and power transformation. Brookfield Renewable Partners Limited operates as the general partner of Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. The company was formerly known as Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners L.P. and changed its name to Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. in May 2016. Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. was founded in 1999 and is based in Toronto, Canada. Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P operates as a subsidiary of Brookfield Corporation.

About Sunrun

Sunrun Inc. designs, develops, installs, sells, owns, and maintains residential solar energy systems in the United States. It also sells solar energy systems and products, such as panels and racking; and solar leads generated to customers. In addition, the company offers battery storage along with solar energy systems; and sells services to commercial developers through multi-family and new homes. Its primary customers are residential homeowners. The company markets and sells its products through direct-to-consumer approach across online, retail, mass media, digital media, canvassing, field marketing, and referral channels, as well as its partner network. Sunrun Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.