Head-To-Head Comparison: Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) and Nextpower (NASDAQ:NXT)

Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) and Nextpower (NASDAQ:NXT) are both large-cap industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings and profitability.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Bloom Energy and Nextpower”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bloom Energy	$2.02 billion	42.04	-$88.43 million	$0.75	385.15
Nextpower	$3.63 billion	3.38	$585.88 million	$3.86	20.95

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Bloom Energy and Nextpower, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bloom Energy	1	12	10	3	2.58
Nextpower	0	4	22	2	2.93

Bloom Energy presently has a consensus price target of $254.14, indicating a potential downside of 12.02%. Nextpower has a consensus price target of $143.42, indicating a potential upside of 77.39%. Given Nextpower’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Nextpower is more favorable than Bloom Energy.

Profitability

This table compares Bloom Energy and Nextpower’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bloom Energy	7.87%	35.45%	8.30%
Nextpower	16.36%	26.29%	15.02%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

77.0% of Bloom Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.4% of Nextpower shares are held by institutional investors. 3.0% of Bloom Energy shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Nextpower shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Bloom Energy has a beta of 3.8, indicating that its share price is 280% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nextpower has a beta of 1.92, indicating that its share price is 92% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Nextpower beats Bloom Energy on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bloom Energy

Bloom Energy Corporation designs, manufactures, sells, and installs solid-oxide fuel cell systems for on-site power generation in the United States and internationally. The company offers Bloom Energy Server, a solid oxide technology that converts fuel, such as natural gas, biogas, hydrogen, or a blend of these fuels into electricity through an electrochemical process without combustion. It sells its products through direct and indirect sales channels to utilities, data centers, agriculture, retail, hospitals, higher education, biotech, and manufacturing industries. The company was formerly known as Ion America Corp. and changed its name to Bloom Energy Corporation in 2006. Bloom Energy Corporation was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

About Nextpower

Nextpower, formerly known as Nextracker, an energy solutions company, provides solar trackers and software solutions for utility-scale and distributed generation solar projects in the United States and internationally. The company offers tracking solutions, which includes NX Horizon, a solar tracking solution; and NX Horizon-XTR, a terrain-following tracker designed to expand the addressable market for trackers on sites with sloped, uneven, and challenging terrain. It also provides TrueCapture, a self-adjusting tracker control system, which boosts solar power plant production by optimizing the position of individual tracker row in response to site features, such as varying topography and changing weather conditions; and NX Navigator, that assists solar power plant owners and operators in monitoring, controlling, and protecting their solar projects. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Fremont, California. As of March 31, 2024 Nextracker Inc. (Nextpower) was formerly a subsidiary of Flex Ltd.