Head-To-Head Analysis: AES (NYSE:AES) & Commerce Energy Group (OTCMKTS:CMNR)

AES (NYSE:AES) and Commerce Energy Group (OTCMKTS:CMNR) are both utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Risk and Volatility

AES has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Commerce Energy Group has a beta of -3.17, suggesting that its share price is 417% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for AES and Commerce Energy Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AES	2	4	7	1	2.50
Commerce Energy Group	0	0	0	0	0.00

AES presently has a consensus price target of $24.00, indicating a potential upside of 68.54%. Given AES’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe AES is more favorable than Commerce Energy Group.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares AES and Commerce Energy Group”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AES	$12.09 billion	0.84	$1.68 billion	$1.60	8.90
Commerce Energy Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

AES has higher revenue and earnings than Commerce Energy Group.

Profitability

This table compares AES and Commerce Energy Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AES	8.42%	19.02%	3.01%
Commerce Energy Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.1% of AES shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of AES shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Commerce Energy Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

AES beats Commerce Energy Group on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AES

The AES Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified power generation and utility company in the United States and internationally. The company owns and/or operates power plants to generate and sell power to customers, such as utilities, industrial users, and other intermediaries; owns and/or operates utilities to generate or purchase, distribute, transmit, and sell electricity to end-user customers in the residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental sectors; and generates and sells electricity on the wholesale market. It uses various fuels and technologies to generate electricity, such as coal, gas, hydro, wind, solar, and biomass, as well as renewables comprising energy storage and landfill gas. The company owns and/or operates a generation portfolio of approximately 34,596 megawatts and distributes power to 2.6 million customers. The company was formerly known as Applied Energy Services, Inc. and changed its name to The AES Corporation in April 2000. The AES Corporation was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

About Commerce Energy Group

Commerce Energy Group Inc. through its subsidiaries provides electric power and natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial and institutional customers in California, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and Ohio. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Costa Mesa, California.