Financial Survey: Hydro One (HRNNF) & The Competition

Hydro One (OTCMKTS:HRNNF) is one of 105 publicly-traded companies in the “Electric Utilities” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Hydro One to similar businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, earnings, valuation and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Hydro One and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hydro One	$6.47 billion	$958.32 million	32.46
Hydro One Competitors	$14.87 billion	$1.54 billion	20.50

Hydro One’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Hydro One. Hydro One is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Hydro One pays an annual dividend of $1.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Hydro One pays out 81.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Electric Utilities” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.3% and pay out 65.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Hydro One lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

59.9% of shares of all “Electric Utilities” companies are held by institutional investors. 6.2% of shares of all “Electric Utilities” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Hydro One and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hydro One	1	5	1	0	2.00
Hydro One Competitors	1389	6385	5325	137	2.32

As a group, “Electric Utilities” companies have a potential upside of 8.90%. Given Hydro One’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Hydro One has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Hydro One and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hydro One	14.88%	11.02%	3.56%
Hydro One Competitors	13.78%	9.65%	3.18%

Summary

Hydro One peers beat Hydro One on 10 of the 14 factors compared.

About Hydro One

Hydro One Limited, through its subsidiaries, operates as an electricity transmission and distribution company in Ontario. The company operates through three segments: Transmission, Distribution, and Other. It owns and operates approximately 30,000 circuit kilometers of high-voltage transmission lines and approximately 125,000 circuit kilometers primary low-voltage distribution lines. The company serves residential, small business, commercial, and industrial customers, as well as municipal utilities. It also provides telecommunications support services for its transmission and distribution businesses; and information and communications technology services and solutions. The company was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.