Critical Review: SolarBank (SUUN) vs. Its Peers

SolarBank (NASDAQ:SUUN) is one of 29 public companies in the “Electric & other services combined” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare SolarBank to similar businesses based on the strength of its profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

72.2% of shares of all “Electric & other services combined” companies are owned by institutional investors. 7.6% of shares of all “Electric & other services combined” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares SolarBank and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
SolarBank	$43.08 million	-$2.56 million	-29.11
SolarBank Competitors	$10.00 billion	$759.64 million	17.29

SolarBank’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than SolarBank. SolarBank is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for SolarBank and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SolarBank	0	0	1	0	3.00
SolarBank Competitors	569	2836	2096	16	2.28

SolarBank currently has a consensus target price of $6.00, indicating a potential upside of 21.24%. As a group, “Electric & other services combined” companies have a potential upside of 4.82%. Given SolarBank’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe SolarBank is more favorable than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares SolarBank and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SolarBank	-6.92%	-13.89%	-5.86%
SolarBank Competitors	6.53%	10.27%	2.76%

Summary

SolarBank competitors beat SolarBank on 9 of the 12 factors compared.

SolarBank Company Profile

SolarBank Corporation operates as an independent renewable and clean energy project developer and asset operator in Canada and the United States. The company engages in the site origination, development, financing, engineering, procurement, construction, operation, maintenance, and asset management of solar photovoltaic power generation projects. It offers solar energy solutions in the areas of behind-the-meter solar power plants, electricity grid connected community solar gardens, and utility scale solar farms. The company was formerly known as Abundant Solar Energy Inc. and changed its name to SolarBank Corporation in October 2022. SolarBank Corporation was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.