Financial Comparison: Archrock (NYSE:AROC) and ProFrac (NASDAQ:ACDC)

Archrock (NYSE:AROC) and ProFrac (NASDAQ:ACDC) are both energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Archrock and ProFrac, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Archrock	0	2	6	0	2.75
ProFrac	4	2	0	0	1.33

Archrock currently has a consensus target price of $32.40, indicating a potential upside of 29.92%. ProFrac has a consensus target price of $5.50, indicating a potential upside of 29.72%. Given Archrock’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Archrock is more favorable than ProFrac.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Archrock and ProFrac”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Archrock	$1.16 billion	3.78	$172.23 million	$1.50	16.63
ProFrac	$2.19 billion	0.35	-$215.10 million	($2.05)	-2.07

Archrock has higher earnings, but lower revenue than ProFrac. ProFrac is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Archrock, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Archrock has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ProFrac has a beta of 1.72, indicating that its share price is 72% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Archrock and ProFrac’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Archrock	18.43%	20.17%	6.68%
ProFrac	-16.86%	-32.01%	-11.17%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

95.5% of Archrock shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 12.8% of ProFrac shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.6% of Archrock shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of ProFrac shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Archrock beats ProFrac on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Archrock

Archrock, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Contract Operations and Aftermarket Services. It engages in the designing, sourcing, owning, installing, operating, servicing, repairing, and maintaining of its owned fleet of natural gas compression equipment to provide natural gas compression services. The company also sells over-the-counter parts and components; and provides operations, major and routine maintenance, overhaul, and reconfiguration services to customers who own compression equipment. It serves integrated and independent oil and natural gas processors, gatherers, and transporters. The company was formerly known as Exterran Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Archrock, Inc. in November 2015. Archrock, Inc. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About ProFrac

ProFrac Holding Corp. operates as a technology-focused energy services holding company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Stimulation Services, Manufacturing, and Proppant Production. The company offers hydraulic fracturing, well stimulation, in-basin frac sand, and other completion services and complementary products and services to upstream oil and natural gas companies engaged in the exploration and production of unconventional oil and natural gas resources. It also manufactures and sells high horsepower pumps, valves, piping, swivels, large-bore manifold systems, and fluid ends. ProFrac Holding Corp. was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Willow Park, Texas.