Contrasting Korea Electric Power (NYSE:KEP) and Ameren (NYSE:AEE)

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) and Korea Electric Power (NYSE:KEP) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

79.1% of Ameren shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Ameren shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Korea Electric Power shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Ameren pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Korea Electric Power pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Ameren pays out 52.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Korea Electric Power pays out 10.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Ameren has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years. Korea Electric Power is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Volatility & Risk

Ameren has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Korea Electric Power has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Ameren and Korea Electric Power, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ameren	0	3	10	0	2.77
Korea Electric Power	1	4	0	0	1.80

Ameren currently has a consensus target price of $121.42, suggesting a potential upside of 13.78%. Given Ameren’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ameren is more favorable than Korea Electric Power.

Profitability

This table compares Ameren and Korea Electric Power’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ameren	17.86%	10.95%	3.00%
Korea Electric Power	8.95%	18.25%	3.45%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Ameren and Korea Electric Power”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ameren	$8.75 billion	3.38	$1.46 billion	$5.68	18.79
Korea Electric Power	$68.57 billion	0.22	$5.98 billion	$4.78	2.49

Korea Electric Power has higher revenue and earnings than Ameren. Korea Electric Power is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ameren, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Ameren beats Korea Electric Power on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ameren

Ameren Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a public utility holding company in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Ameren Missouri, Ameren Illinois Electric Distribution, Ameren Illinois Natural Gas, and Ameren Transmission. It engages in the rate-regulated electric generation, transmission, and distribution activities; and rate-regulated natural gas distribution business. In addition, the company generates electricity through coal, nuclear, and natural gas, as well as renewable sources, such as hydroelectric, wind, methane gas, and solar. It serves residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The company was founded in 1881 and is headquartered in Saint Louis, Missouri.

About Korea Electric Power

Korea Electric Power Corporation, an integrated electric utility company, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in South Korea and internationally. The company operates through Transmission and Distribution, Nuclear Power Generation, Thermal Power Generation, and Others segments. It generates power from nuclear, coal, oil, liquefied natural gas, internal combustion, combined-cycle, integrated gasification combined cycle, hydro, wind, solar, fuel cell, biogas, and other sources. As of December 31, 2022, the company had a total of 770 generation units, including nuclear, thermal, hydroelectric, and internal combustion units with an installed generation capacity of 82,723 megawatts; transmission system consisted of 35,451 circuit kilometers of lines of 765 kilovolts and others, including high-voltage direct current lines, as well as 895 substations with an installed transformer capacity of 347,426 megavolt-amperes; and distribution system included 139,265 megavolt-amperes of transformer capacity and 10,084,051 units of support with a total line length of 535,241 circuit kilometers. The company provides electricity to residential, commercial, educational, industrial, agricultural, street lighting, and overnight power usage. It also provides engineering and construction services for utility plant and others; utility plant maintenance, electric power information technology, resources development, facility maintenance, electric meter reading, and security services; and engages in nuclear fuel, fly ashes recycling, utility plants construction and operation, and wood pellet utilization businesses. Korea Electric Power Corporation was founded in 1898 and is headquartered in Naju-si, South Korea.