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Clearway Energy CWEN continues to benefit from its focus on North American operations and modern utility-scale clean renewable projects that ensure high fleet availability and low maintenance costs. Given its growth opportunities, CWEN makes for a solid investment option in the alternative energy industry.
Let’s explore the factors that make this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company a strong investment pick at the moment.
CWEN’s Growth Projections & Surprise History
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 earnings per share (EPS) has increased 1.2% to 82 cents in the past 60 days.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 sales is pinned at $1.42 billion, indicating a year-over-year increase of 8.3%.
CWEN’s long-term earnings (three-to-five-year) growth rate is 26.8%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 35.8% for the trailing four quarters.
Debt Position of CWEN
Currently, the company’s total debt to capital is 55.95%, much better than the industry’s average of 61.17%. A lower debt-to-capital ratio is often viewed more favorably, since there is less solvency risk.
CWEN’s Liquidity
The company’s current ratio is 1.59, better than the industry’s average of 1.22. A current ratio greater than one indicates that the company has enough assets to liquidate to cover all short-term liabilities, if necessary.
Dividend History of CWEN
The company's consistent performance helps it continue with its shareholder-friendly moves. It has been paying out dividends consistently since 2015. The utility has been increasing dividends every year since the inception of the payment. In October 2024, CWEN increased its quarterly dividend by 1.7% to 42.4 cents per share from 41.71 cents in the previous quarter. This increase resulted in an annualized dividend of $1.696 per share. The current dividend yield is 6.59%, better than the Zacks S&P 500 composite’s 1.21%.
CWEN’s Focus on Clean Energy
The company owns and operates utility scale and distributed renewable energy and natural gas-fired generation, thermal and other infrastructure assets with proven technologies, low operating risks and stable cash flows. CWEN’s Victory Pass of solar and storage has nearly 649-megawatt capacity. It is a 12-15-year power purchase agreement with diverse investments. As of Sept. 30, 2024, the company’s origination of new power contracts totaled 3.6 gigawatts (GW). Contracted and awarded capacity came in at 1.3 GW. Additionally, CWEN now has over 5 GW of projects in active engagement with corporates and load-serving entities seeking carbon-free energy to power data centers across multiple markets.