Financial Analysis: Black Stone Minerals (NYSE:BSM) vs. XPLR Infrastructure (NYSE:XIFR)

Black Stone Minerals (NYSE:BSM) and XPLR Infrastructure (NYSE:XIFR) are both energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Black Stone Minerals and XPLR Infrastructure’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Black Stone Minerals	55.74%	32.76%	22.26%
XPLR Infrastructure	-14.10%	1.64%	1.03%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Black Stone Minerals and XPLR Infrastructure, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Black Stone Minerals	0	2	0	0	2.00
XPLR Infrastructure	2	12	2	0	2.00

Black Stone Minerals presently has a consensus target price of $14.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.32%. XPLR Infrastructure has a consensus target price of $17.64, indicating a potential upside of 111.55%. Given XPLR Infrastructure’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe XPLR Infrastructure is more favorable than Black Stone Minerals.

Risk & Volatility

Black Stone Minerals has a beta of 0.31, indicating that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, XPLR Infrastructure has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

14.5% of Black Stone Minerals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.0% of XPLR Infrastructure shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.8% of Black Stone Minerals shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of XPLR Infrastructure shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Black Stone Minerals and XPLR Infrastructure”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Black Stone Minerals	$433.70 million	6.35	$271.33 million	$0.92	14.18
XPLR Infrastructure	$1.23 billion	0.64	-$23.00 million	($1.90)	-4.39

Black Stone Minerals has higher earnings, but lower revenue than XPLR Infrastructure. XPLR Infrastructure is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Black Stone Minerals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Black Stone Minerals beats XPLR Infrastructure on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Black Stone Minerals

Black Stone Minerals, L.P., together with its subsidiaries, owns and manages oil and natural gas mineral interests. It owns mineral interests in approximately 16.8 million gross acres, nonparticipating royalty interests in 1.8 million gross acres, and overriding royalty interests in 1.6 million gross acres located in 41 states in the United States. The company was founded in 1876 and is based in Houston, Texas.

About XPLR Infrastructure

XPLR Infrastructure LP engages in the acquisition, management, and ownership of contracted clean energy projects with long-term cash flows. It owns interests in wind and solar projects in North America and natural gas infrastructure assets in Texas. The company was founded on March 6, 2014 and is headquartered in Juno Beach, FL.