Comparing Shoals Technologies Group (NASDAQ:SHLS) and Nextpower (NASDAQ:NXT)

Nextpower (NASDAQ:NXT) and Shoals Technologies Group (NASDAQ:SHLS) are both energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Nextpower and Shoals Technologies Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nextpower	0	9	17	1	2.70
Shoals Technologies Group	2	7	13	0	2.50

Nextpower presently has a consensus target price of $95.76, indicating a potential upside of 4.09%. Shoals Technologies Group has a consensus target price of $8.84, indicating a potential upside of 5.96%. Given Shoals Technologies Group’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Shoals Technologies Group is more favorable than Nextpower.

Risk & Volatility

Nextpower has a beta of 2.31, suggesting that its share price is 131% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shoals Technologies Group has a beta of 1.69, suggesting that its share price is 69% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

67.4% of Nextpower shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Nextpower shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Shoals Technologies Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Nextpower and Shoals Technologies Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nextpower	17.08%	35.05%	18.13%
Shoals Technologies Group	7.66%	8.50%	6.01%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Nextpower and Shoals Technologies Group”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nextpower	$2.96 billion	4.61	$509.17 million	$3.85	23.90
Shoals Technologies Group	$399.21 million	3.50	$24.13 million	$0.20	41.73

Nextpower has higher revenue and earnings than Shoals Technologies Group. Nextpower is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Shoals Technologies Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Nextpower beats Shoals Technologies Group on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nextpower

Nextpower, formerly known as Nextracker, an energy solutions company, provides solar trackers and software solutions for utility-scale and distributed generation solar projects in the United States and internationally. The company offers tracking solutions, which includes NX Horizon, a solar tracking solution; and NX Horizon-XTR, a terrain-following tracker designed to expand the addressable market for trackers on sites with sloped, uneven, and challenging terrain. It also provides TrueCapture, a self-adjusting tracker control system, which boosts solar power plant production by optimizing the position of individual tracker row in response to site features, such as varying topography and changing weather conditions; and NX Navigator, that assists solar power plant owners and operators in monitoring, controlling, and protecting their solar projects. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Fremont, California. As of March 31, 2024 Nextracker Inc. (Nextpower) was formerly a subsidiary of Flex Ltd.

About Shoals Technologies Group

Shoals Technologies Group, Inc. provides electrical balance of system (EBOS) solutions and components for solar, battery energy, and electric vehicle (EV) charging applications in the United States and internationally. The company designs, manufactures, and sells system solutions for both homerun and combine-as-you-go wiring architectures, as well as offers technical support services. It provides EBOS components, including combiners; plug-n-play branch connectors and inline fuses; AC disconnects; recombiners; wireless monitoring; junction boxes; wire management; EV power cabinets; and battery energy storage systems cabinets, as well as cable assemblies, transition enclosures, and splice boxes. In addition, the company offers eMobility solutions, such as a power center, which combines equipment needed to protect the charging equipment and transform voltage levels from the electric utility to those needed on the respective site; quick connect solutions for chargers to connect to the Shoals system; big lead assembly (BLA) technology in the EV space to connect multiple chargers to a single power center; and a raceway system that protects the above ground EV BLAs in walk over and drive over applications. Further, it provides Snapshot IV, a solar operations and maintenance solution that monitors the specific voltage and current of individual solar panels and compares the results against the manufacturer's projected performance. The company sells its products to engineering, procurement, and construction firms that build solar energy projects; utilities; solar developers, independent power producers; solar module manufacturers; and charge point operators. Shoals Technologies Group, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Portland, Tennessee.