OGS vs UGI: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?
Last updated August 2026
Short answer
UGI is the larger of the two ($8.23B market cap): the incumbent the market prices for continued execution (11.79x forward earnings, beta 0.95). OGS is the smaller challenger ($5.09B), actually pricier on forward earnings (16.01x): more room to run, but more to prove. The real question is which set of drivers you believe, and whether owning one (or both) leaves you over-concentrated.
OGS vs UGI: the tie-breaker metrics
Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.
| Metric | OGS | UGI | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $5.09B | $8.23B | Size. The larger name is the incumbent; the smaller has more room to grow and more to prove. |
| Forward P/E | 16.01 | 11.79 | Valuation on next year's expected earnings, the same yardstick for both. Lower is cheaper for that growth; higher means the market is paying up. |
| Trailing P/E | 17.47 | 12.84 | Valuation on the last 12 months. A big drop from trailing to forward means the market expects earnings to jump, so more growth is already in the price. |
| Beta | 0.66 | 0.95 | Volatility vs the market. Above 1 swings harder than the index; below 1 is steadier. Higher beta means bigger drawdowns to hold through. |
| Price vs 52-week range | 42% of range | 70% of range | Where today's price sits between the 52-week low and high. Near the high is momentum with less margin of safety; near the low is out of favor or a discount, depending on why. |
| Price / book | 1.44 | 1.52 | How much you pay over book value. Very high can signal an asset-light, high-return business or a rich price. |
Reading it: UGI is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.
Before you buy: how OGS and UGI affect your concentration
The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. OGS and UGI share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.
This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined OGS and UGI exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.
What does ONE Gas (OGS) do?
ONE Gas runs three regulated natural gas distribution utilities and nothing else: Oklahoma Natural Gas, Kansas Gas Service and Texas Gas Service, together serving roughly 2.3 million customers, about 92% of them residential. The company does not drill for gas, does not own long-haul pipelines, and does not sell electricity. It buys gas, delivers it, and passes the commodity cost through to customers at no markup. Earnings come instead from an allowed return on capital sunk into pipe, meters and regulators, an average rate base of about $6.4 billion in 2026. Terms are set state by state: allowed returns on equity near 9.4% in Oklahoma, 9.5% in Kansas and 9.8% in Texas, on equity layers around 60%. Roughly 70% of margin arrives as fixed customer charges, so a mild winter bruises results less than it once did.
What does UGI Corporation (UGI) do?
UGI Corporation, based in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, runs four businesses that have less in common than the single ticker suggests. Utilities is the regulated core, a Pennsylvania natural gas distribution utility plus a small electric utility that UGI agreed in April 2026 to sell for ~$470 million, with closing expected in the second quarter of fiscal 2027. Midstream & Marketing owns pipelines, storage, LNG peaking capacity and gas marketing contracts across the Appalachian basin. UGI International sells LPG across Europe, a footprint UGI has been trimming through divestitures in Italy, Austria and Eastern Europe. AmeriGas Propane delivers propane to homes and businesses nationwide, and UGI describes it as the largest retail propane distributor in the country. The fiscal year ends September 30, so earnings land almost entirely in the winter quarters and the June quarter is normally a loss.
OGS vs UGI: how do they differ?
Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.
- OGS drivers: Rate base growth, funded by a defined capital plan; Rate cases and the trackers that shorten regulatory lag.
- UGI drivers: The Pennsylvania rate case and utility capital spending; Appalachian gas demand from data centers and power generation.
Which fits which kind of investor
A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Regulatory outcomes are the central risk: a commission can disallow spending, set a lower allowed return, or simply take long enough that the company under-earns on capital already deployed. For UGI, weather is the single largest swing factor, and UGI's June-quarter results already reflected temperatures 23% warmer than normal in Europe and 10% warmer than normal across the midstream footprint.
OGS or UGI: which should you pick?
Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick OGS if you believe its drivers more; UGI if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the OGS and UGI guides.
OGS vs UGI: the full fundamentals
OGS. A sales multiple is close to meaningless here, since the commodity component of revenue is billed at cost and simply flows back out. Regulated gas distributors are compared on price to earnings against rate base growth and allowed ROE, and OGS at roughly 17 times trailing earnings sits in the normal band for the group. Total debt of about $3.4 billion against A3 and A- credit ratings, with adjusted cash flow to debt guided at 19% to 20%, is the other half of the valuation conversation.
UGI. The June quarter is structurally a loss for UGI because propane and heating gas volumes collapse in summer, so the trailing twelve-month figures are the honest read. Adjusted EPS strips out mark-to-market swings on commodity and currency derivatives, disposal losses and debt extinguishment charges, and it ran below GAAP EPS over the trailing year rather than above it. Market cap reflects the ~9% move on August 18, 2026 after the reported KKR approach; against the prior close of $35.09 the multiple was closer to 11.6x trailing earnings.
Headline figures (approximate, August 2026): OGS shows revenue (ttm) ~$2.31B, heavily pass-through gas cost, net income / eps (ttm) ~$288M, ~$4.66 per diluted share, q2 2026 (reported august) adjusted net income ~$52.1M, ~$0.82 per share, GAAP ~$0.74, 2026 adjusted eps guidance ~$4.83 to ~$4.95, raised to the upper half; UGI shows revenue (ttm ended june 30, 2026) ~$7,296M, net income (ttm) ~$671M, or ~$3.03 diluted EPS, adjusted diluted eps (ttm) ~$2.95, latest quarter (q3 fy2026, ended june 30, 2026) Revenue ~$1,331M, net loss ~$(133)M, adjusted EPS ~$(0.20).
The bottom line: OGS vs UGI
OGS and UGI are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined OGS and UGI exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.
Wondering how OGS or UGI fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.
Investing in ONE Gas with AI
Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how OGS fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.
FAQ
What is the difference between OGS and UGI?
+
ONE Gas runs three regulated natural gas distribution utilities and nothing else: Oklahoma Natural Gas, Kansas Gas Service and Texas Gas Service, together serving roughly 2.3 million customers, about 92% of them residential. UGI Corporation, based in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, runs four businesses that have less in common than the single ticker suggests. They show up together because they share investment themes, but they are different businesses, so the better fit depends on which thesis you are expressing.
Is OGS or UGI the better stock?
+
Neither is universally better. UGI is the larger incumbent; OGS is the smaller challenger and looks pricier on forward earnings. Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Compare what each does, the tie-breaker metrics above, and the risks, then decide which fits your thesis and what you already own.
Which is cheaper, OGS or UGI?
+
On forward P/E (as of August 2026), OGS trades at 16.01x and UGI at 11.79x, so UGI is the cheaper of the two on next year's expected earnings. A lower multiple is not automatically the better buy: a richer valuation can be justified by faster growth, and a lower one can reflect real risk. Weigh the multiple against how fast each business is compounding.
Should you own both OGS and UGI?
+
Because they share themes, owning both concentrates you in that theme. That can be intentional (a focused bet) or accidental (less diversification than it looks). Walnut can show your combined exposure across both, and whether adding either over-concentrates you, before you buy.
What are the risks of OGS vs UGI?
+
OGS: Regulatory outcomes are the central risk: a commission can disallow spending, set a lower allowed return, or simply take long enough that the company under-earns on capital already deployed. Affordability politics compound this, because Winter Storm Uri securitization charges of roughly $6 a month already sit on customer bills in Oklahoma and Kansas and will for years. Another Uri-scale gas price event would again force ONE Gas to fund enormous purchases before recovering them, a working capital shock the 2021 event showed can run into the billions. The funding plan assumes equity can be issued on reasonable terms, so a lower share price makes the same capital program more dilutive. Longer term, building electrification and state-level restrictions on new gas connections would chip at customer growth in a business whose value rests on adding meters for decades. UGI: Weather is the single largest swing factor, and UGI's June-quarter results already reflected temperatures 23% warmer than normal in Europe and 10% warmer than normal across the midstream footprint. AmeriGas customer attrition has continued through the turnaround, and the trailing-year goodwill impairment of ~$192 million after tax in the prior period shows what happens when propane assumptions reset. Fiscal 2026 adjusted guidance of $2.75 to $2.90 was itself a downward revision, so the reaffirmation is a floor being defended rather than a raise. Legal exposure is real and specific: the March 2023 West Reading, Pennsylvania explosion killed seven people, discovery in the resulting lawsuits has begun, and on March 18, 2026 the Pennsylvania PUC filed a formal complaint alleging pipeline safety violations and seeking civil penalties. The reported KKR approach carries its own risk in both directions, because the company has not confirmed it, no agreement exists, and a shareholder who bought for the takeout would be left holding a mid-single-digit-growth utility if nothing comes of it.
Walnut is informational, not investment advice. This page is descriptive and not a recommendation to buy or sell OGS or UGI; figures are approximate and dated (as of August 2026). Verify current data before investing.