Analyzing Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ:CLNE) and TC Energy (NYSE:TRP)

TC Energy (NYSE:TRP) and Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ:CLNE) are both energy companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, risk, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

83.1% of TC Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.9% of Clean Energy Fuels shares are held by institutional investors. 4.1% of Clean Energy Fuels shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for TC Energy and Clean Energy Fuels, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TC Energy	0	5	9	1	2.73
Clean Energy Fuels	1	2	0	1	2.25

TC Energy currently has a consensus price target of $89.00, indicating a potential upside of 46.32%. Clean Energy Fuels has a consensus price target of $2.38, indicating a potential upside of 46.22%. Given TC Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe TC Energy is more favorable than Clean Energy Fuels.

Profitability

This table compares TC Energy and Clean Energy Fuels’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TC Energy	22.91%	11.10%	3.21%
Clean Energy Fuels	-21.27%	-16.52%	-8.87%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares TC Energy and Clean Energy Fuels”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
TC Energy	$10.91 billion	5.58	$2.52 billion	$2.41	25.24
Clean Energy Fuels	$424.83 million	0.84	-$222.02 million	($0.44)	-3.70

TC Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Clean Energy Fuels. Clean Energy Fuels is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than TC Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

TC Energy has a beta of 0.66, suggesting that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Clean Energy Fuels has a beta of 1.82, suggesting that its stock price is 82% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

TC Energy beats Clean Energy Fuels on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About TC Energy

TC Energy Corporation operates as an energy infrastructure company in North America. It operates through five segments: Canadian Natural Gas Pipelines; U.S. Natural Gas Pipelines; Mexico Natural Gas Pipelines; Liquids Pipelines; and Power and Energy Solutions. The company builds and operates a network of 93,600 kilometers of natural gas pipelines, which transports natural gas from supply basins to local distribution companies, power generation plants, industrial facilities, interconnecting pipelines, LNG export terminals, and other businesses. It also has regulated natural gas storage facilities with a total working gas capacity of 532 billion cubic feet. In addition, it has approximately 4,900 kilometers of liquids pipeline system that connects Alberta crude oil pipeline to refining markets in Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, and the United States Gulf Coast. Further, the company owns or has interests in power generation facilities with approximately 4,600 megawatts; and owns and operates approximately 118 billion cubic feet of non-regulated natural gas storage facilities in in Alberta, Ontario, Québec, and New Brunswick. The company was formerly known as TransCanada Corporation and changed its name to TC Energy Corporation in May 2019. TC Energy Corporation was founded in 1951 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

About Clean Energy Fuels

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. provides natural gas as alternative fuels for vehicle fleets and related fueling solutions in the United States and Canada. It supplies renewable natural gas (RNG), compressed natural gas (CNG), and liquefied natural gas (LNG) for medium and heavy-duty vehicles; and offers operation and maintenance services for public and private vehicle fleet customer stations. The company also designs, builds, operates, and maintains vehicle fueling stations; and sells and services compressors and other equipment that are used in RNG production and fueling stations. In addition, it transports and sells CNG, RNG, and LNG through virtual natural gas pipelines and interconnects; sells U.S. federal, state, and local government credits, such as RNG as a vehicle fuel, including Renewable Identification Numbers and Low Carbon Fuel Standards credits; and obtains federal, state, and local credits, grants, and incentives. Further, the company focuses on developing, owning, and operating dairy and other livestock waste RNG projects. It serves heavy-duty trucking, airports, refuse, public transit, industrial, and institutional energy users, as well as government fleets. Clean Energy Fuels Corp. was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Newport Beach, California.