Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA) & Ameresco (NYSE:AMRC) Head to Head Analysis

Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA) and Ameresco (NYSE:AMRC) are both energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

Ormat Technologies has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ameresco has a beta of 2.42, meaning that its share price is 142% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Ormat Technologies and Ameresco’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ormat Technologies	14.49%	5.47%	2.43%
Ameresco	3.34%	7.00%	1.74%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Ormat Technologies and Ameresco, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ormat Technologies	0	4	7	1	2.75
Ameresco	1	3	7	1	2.67

Ormat Technologies presently has a consensus target price of $115.44, indicating a potential upside of 6.36%. Ameresco has a consensus target price of $36.00, indicating a potential upside of 11.88%. Given Ameresco’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ameresco is more favorable than Ormat Technologies.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ormat Technologies and Ameresco”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ormat Technologies	$944.25 million	6.99	$123.73 million	$2.18	49.79
Ameresco	$1.88 billion	0.90	$56.76 million	$1.19	27.04

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

95.5% of Ormat Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.2% of Ameresco shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Ormat Technologies shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 45.0% of Ameresco shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Ormat Technologies beats Ameresco on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ormat Technologies

Ormat Technologies, Inc. engages in the geothermal and recovered energy power business in the United States, Indonesia, Kenya, Turkey, Chile, Guatemala, Guadeloupe, New Zealand, Honduras, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Electricity, Product, and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment develops, builds, owns, and operates geothermal, solar photovoltaic, and recovered energy-based power plants; and sells electricity. The Product segment designs, manufactures, and sells equipment for geothermal and recovered energy-based electricity generation; and provides services relating to the engineering, procurement, construction, operation, and maintenance of geothermal and recovered energy-based power plants. This segment serves contractors; and owners and operators of interstate natural gas pipelines, gas processing plants, and cement plants, as well as companies in other energy-intensive industrial processes. The Energy Storage segment offers battery energy storage systems and related services. Ormat Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Reno, Nevada.

About Ameresco

Ameresco, Inc., a clean technology integrator, provides a portfolio of energy efficiency and renewable energy supply solutions in the United States, Canada, Europe, and internationally. It operates through U.S. Regions, U.S. Federal, Canada, Europe, Alternative Fuels, and All Other segments. The company offers energy efficiency, infrastructure upgrades, energy security and resilience, asset sustainability, and renewable energy solutions for businesses and organizations. It designs, develops, engineers, and installs projects that reduce the energy, as well as operations and maintenance (O&M) costs of its customers' facilities; and projects primarily include various measures customized for the facility and designed to enhance the efficiency of building systems, such as heating, ventilation, cooling, and lighting systems. In addition, the company offers renewable energy solutions and services, such as the construction of small-scale plants that the company owns or develops for customers that produce electricity, gas, heat, or cooling from renewable sources of energy and O&M services; and electricity, processed renewable gas fuel, and heat or cooling produced from renewable sources of energy. Further, the company sells photovoltaic (PV) solar energy products and systems, as well as provides consulting, and enterprise energy management services; and operates wind farms. It serves the federal, state, local governments, healthcare and educational institutions, airports, public housing authorities and public universities, municipal utilities, and commercial and industrial customers. As of December 31, 2023, the company owned and operated 185 small-scale renewable energy plants and solar PV installations. Ameresco, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts.