Financial Comparison: NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) & Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN)

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) and Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, valuation and earnings.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares NRG Energy and Sunrun”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
NRG Energy	$30.71 billion	0.67	$864.00 million	$3.78	25.63
Sunrun	$2.96 billion	0.62	$449.95 million	$1.48	5.16

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for NRG Energy and Sunrun, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NRG Energy	1	3	10	1	2.73
Sunrun	2	8	12	0	2.45

NRG Energy currently has a consensus target price of $198.21, indicating a potential upside of 104.62%. Sunrun has a consensus target price of $16.70, indicating a potential upside of 118.61%. Given Sunrun’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Sunrun is more favorable than NRG Energy.

Profitability

This table compares NRG Energy and Sunrun’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NRG Energy	2.56%	52.95%	4.29%
Sunrun	11.59%	9.59%	1.77%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

97.7% of NRG Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.7% of Sunrun shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of NRG Energy shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.5% of Sunrun shares are owned 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.

Volatility and Risk

NRG Energy has a beta of 1.18, suggesting that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sunrun has a beta of 2.37, suggesting that its share price is 137% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

NRG Energy beats Sunrun on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About NRG Energy

NRG Energy, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy and home services company in the United States and Canada. It operates through Texas; East; West/Services/Other; Vivint Smart Home; and Corporate Activities segments. The company produces and sells electricity generated using coal, oil, solar, and battery storage; natural gas; and a cloud-based home platform, including hardware, software, sales, installation, customer service, technical support, and professional monitoring solutions. It offers retail electricity and energy management, line and surge protection products, HVAC installation, repair and maintenance, home protection products, carbon offsets, back-up power stations, portable power, portable solar, and portable lighting; retail services comprising demand response, commodity sales, energy efficiency, and energy management solutions; and system power, distributed generation, renewable and low-carbon products, carbon management and specialty services, backup generation, storage and distributed solar, and energy advisory services. In addition, the company trades in power, natural gas, and related commodities; environmental products; weather products; and financial products, including forwards, futures, options, and swaps. It offers its products and services under the NRG, Reliant, Direct Energy, Green Mountain Energy, and Vivint. It serves residential, commercial, government, industrial, and wholesale customers. NRG Energy, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

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.