NRG Energy: The Most Volatile Stock in the S&P 500 Utilities

Some industry experts criticize NRG Energy’s (NRG) presence in the S&P 500 Utilities Index. Although utilities (XLU) are generally known for their stable stock price movements, NRG is driven by its volatile earnings.

NRG Energy’s beta stands above 1 while utilities generally have betas below 0.5. NRG Energy is currently trading at its early 2016 levels.

NRG’s volatile stock movement resulted in significant underperformance compared to the Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLU).

Let’s look at total returns of utilities in the next article.