Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL) (NYSE:ELP) & Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) Head to Head Comparison

Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL) (NYSE:ELP) and Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) are both utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL) and Exelon, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL)	0	0	0	0	0.00
Exelon	1	5	4	0	2.30

Exelon has a consensus price target of $47.40, suggesting a potential upside of 9.98%. Given Exelon’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Exelon is more favorable than Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL).

Dividends

Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL) pays an annual dividend of $0.39 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Exelon pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL) pays out 229.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Exelon pays out 59.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Exelon has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

3.8% of Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL) shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.9% of Exelon shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Exelon shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL) and Exelon’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL)	12.67%	11.17%	4.96%
Exelon	11.44%	10.29%	2.58%

Volatility & Risk

Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL) has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Exelon has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its stock price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL) and Exelon”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL)	$4.20 billion	1.31	$520.91 million	$0.17	54.53
Exelon	$23.03 billion	1.89	$2.46 billion	$2.69	16.02

Exelon has higher revenue and earnings than Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL). Exelon is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL), indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Exelon beats Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL) on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL)

Companhia Paranaense de Energia – COPEL engages in the generation, transformation, distribution, and sale of electricity to industrial, residential, commercial, rural, and other customers in Brazil. The company operates through Power Generation and Transmission, Power Distribution, Power Sale, and Gas segments. It is also involved in the piped natural gas distribution. The company operates hydroelectric, wind, and thermoelectric plants; and owns and operates transmission and distribution lines. It holds concessions to distribute electricity in municipalities in the State of Paraná and in the municipality of Porto União in the State of Santa Catarina. Companhia Paranaense de Energia COPEL was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Curitiba, Brazil.Companhia Paranaense de Energia – COPEL Operates as a subsidiary of Governo Do Estado Do Parana.

About Exelon

Exelon Corporation, a utility services holding company, engages in the energy distribution and transmission businesses in the United States and Canada. The company is involved in the purchase and regulated retail sale of electricity and natural gas, transmission and distribution of electricity, and distribution of natural gas to retail customers. It also offers support services, including legal, human resources, information technology, supply management, financial, engineering, customer operations, transmission and distribution planning, asset management, system operations, and power procurement services. It serves distribution utilities, municipalities, and financial institutions, as well as commercial, industrial, governmental, and residential customers. Exelon Corporation was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.