Head to Head Survey: Spruce Power (NYSE:SPRU) and Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN)

Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN) and Spruce Power (NYSE:SPRU) are both utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, risk and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Sunrun and Spruce Power, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sunrun	2	8	12	0	2.45
Spruce Power	1	0	0	0	1.00

Sunrun presently has a consensus target price of $16.81, indicating a potential upside of 87.64%. Given Sunrun’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Sunrun is more favorable than Spruce Power.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

91.7% of Sunrun shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.8% of Spruce Power shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.5% of Sunrun shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 11.2% of Spruce Power shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Sunrun and Spruce Power’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sunrun	11.59%	9.59%	1.77%
Spruce Power	-6.76%	-5.94%	-0.87%

Risk and Volatility

Sunrun has a beta of 2.37, indicating that its stock price is 137% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Spruce Power has a beta of 1.19, indicating that its stock price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Sunrun and Spruce Power”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sunrun	$2.96 billion	0.73	$449.95 million	$1.48	6.05
Spruce Power	$108.49 million	0.31	-$26.03 million	($0.45)	-3.89

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

Summary

Sunrun beats Spruce Power on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sunrun

Sunrun Inc. designs, develops, installs, sells, owns, and maintains residential solar energy systems in the United States. It also sells solar energy systems and products, such as panels and racking; and solar leads generated to customers. In addition, the company offers battery storage along with solar energy systems; and sells services to commercial developers through multi-family and new homes. Its primary customers are residential homeowners. The company markets and sells its products through direct-to-consumer approach across online, retail, mass media, digital media, canvassing, field marketing, and referral channels, as well as its partner network. Sunrun Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Spruce Power

Spruce Power Holding Corporation owns and operates distributed solar energy assets in the United States. The company provides subscription-based services for homeowners and businesses to own and maintain rooftop solar and battery storage. It offers its subscription-based services to approximately 75,000 customers. The company is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.