Critical Contrast: Bloom Energy (BE) vs. Its Competitors

Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) is one of 21 public companies in the “Electrical industrial apparatus” industry, but how does it compare to its rivals? We will compare Bloom Energy to similar companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Bloom Energy and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bloom Energy	1	11	8	1	2.43
Bloom Energy Competitors	92	599	840	35	2.52

Bloom Energy currently has a consensus price target of $25.06, suggesting a potential upside of 50.48%. As a group, “Electrical industrial apparatus” companies have a potential upside of 36.17%. Given Bloom Energy’s higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Bloom Energy is more favorable than its rivals.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

77.0% of Bloom Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.1% of shares of all “Electrical industrial apparatus” companies are held by institutional investors. 8.8% of Bloom Energy shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 10.7% of shares of all “Electrical industrial apparatus” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Bloom Energy and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bloom Energy	-10.29%	-20.32%	-3.94%
Bloom Energy Competitors	-211.08%	-93.75%	-17.25%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Bloom Energy and its rivals revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bloom Energy	$1.47 billion	-$302.12 million	-83.25
Bloom Energy Competitors	$534.72 million	-$136.01 million	-3.42

Bloom Energy has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its rivals. Bloom Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Risk & Volatility

Bloom Energy has a beta of 3.27, suggesting that its share price is 227% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bloom Energy’s rivals have a beta of 1.54, suggesting that their average share price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Bloom Energy beats its rivals on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

About Bloom Energy

Bloom Energy Corporation designs, manufactures, sells, and installs solid-oxide fuel cell systems for on-site power generation in the United States and internationally. The company offers Bloom Energy Server, a solid oxide technology that converts fuel, such as natural gas, biogas, hydrogen, or a blend of these fuels into electricity through an electrochemical process without combustion. It sells its products through direct and indirect sales channels to utilities, data centers, agriculture, retail, hospitals, higher education, biotech, and manufacturing industries. The company was formerly known as Ion America Corp. and changed its name to Bloom Energy Corporation in 2006. Bloom Energy Corporation was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.