Contrasting Kenon (NYSE:KEN) & Talen Energy (NASDAQ:TLN)

Talen Energy (NASDAQ:TLN) and Kenon (NYSE:KEN) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Talen Energy and Kenon, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Talen Energy	1	3	10	0	2.64
Kenon	0	1	0	0	2.00

Talen Energy presently has a consensus target price of $466.86, indicating a potential upside of 47.27%. Given Talen Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Talen Energy is more favorable than Kenon.

Profitability

This table compares Talen Energy and Kenon’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Talen Energy	-5.38%	43.32%	5.31%
Kenon	7.98%	3.47%	2.01%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Talen Energy and Kenon”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Talen Energy	$2.58 billion	5.88	-$219.00 million	($4.17)	-76.02
Kenon	$871.63 million	4.13	$66.27 million	$1.04	66.38

Kenon has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Talen Energy. Talen Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kenon, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

0.4% of Talen Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 13.4% of Kenon shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of Talen Energy shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Kenon shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Talen Energy has a beta of 1.84, meaning that its stock price is 84% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kenon has a beta of 1.09, meaning that its stock price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Talen Energy beats Kenon on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Talen Energy

Talen Energy Corporation is a U.S.-based energy and power generation company. The Company owns or controls approximately 16,000 megawatts of capacity in wholesale power markets, principally in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southwest regions of the United States. The Company generates and sells electricity, capacity and related products from power plants that use fuel sources, such as nuclear, natural gas and coal. The Company’s Susquehanna nuclear power plant has approximately two boiling water reactors with a combined capacity of over 2,600 megawatts. Its fossil fuel plants are located in Athens, Barney Davis, Bayonne, Brandon Shores, Brunner Island, Camden, Colstrip and Dartmouth, among others. It has an art energy trading center located in Allentown, Pennsylvania (PA), where it manages asset load obligations, fuel supply, capacity and related products, and all supporting physical or financial transactions for its electric generation portfolio.

About Kenon

Kenon Holdings Ltd., through its subsidiaries, operates as an owner, developer, and operator of power generation facilities in Israel, the United States, and internationally. It operates through OPC Power Plants, CPV Group, and ZIM segments. The company engages in the generation and supply of electricity and energy; development, construction, and management of solar and wind energy, and conventional natural gas-fired power plants; and provision of container liner shipping services. It also operates a fleet of 150 vessels. Kenon Holdings Ltd. was incorporated in 2014 and is based in Singapore. Kenon Holdings Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of Ansonia Holdings Singapore B.V.