Comparing Magnolia Oil & Gas (NYSE:MGY) & Geopark (NYSE:GPRK)

Magnolia Oil & Gas (NYSE:MGY) and Geopark (NYSE:GPRK) are both energy companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

94.7% of Magnolia Oil & Gas shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.2% of Geopark shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Magnolia Oil & Gas shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Geopark shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Magnolia Oil & Gas has a beta of 0.71, suggesting that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Geopark has a beta of 0.36, suggesting that its share price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Magnolia Oil & Gas pays an annual dividend of $0.66 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Geopark pays an annual dividend of $0.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Magnolia Oil & Gas pays out 38.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Geopark pays out 8.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Magnolia Oil & Gas has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years and Geopark has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Magnolia Oil & Gas and Geopark’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Magnolia Oil & Gas	24.40%	16.28%	11.26%
Geopark	11.74%	36.71%	8.06%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Magnolia Oil & Gas and Geopark, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Magnolia Oil & Gas	0	10	7	0	2.41
Geopark	0	2	2	0	2.50

Magnolia Oil & Gas presently has a consensus target price of $31.42, indicating a potential upside of 15.15%. Geopark has a consensus target price of $11.50, indicating a potential upside of 4.12%. Given Magnolia Oil & Gas’ higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Magnolia Oil & Gas is more favorable than Geopark.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Magnolia Oil & Gas and Geopark”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Magnolia Oil & Gas	$1.31 billion	3.85	$325.25 million	$1.72	15.86
Geopark	$492.52 million	1.16	$49.67 million	$1.05	10.52

Magnolia Oil & Gas has higher revenue and earnings than Geopark. Geopark is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Magnolia Oil & Gas, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Magnolia Oil & Gas beats Geopark on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Magnolia Oil & Gas

Magnolia Oil & Gas Corp. engages in the acquisition, development, exploration, and production of oil and natural gas properties. It operates assets located in the Eagle Ford Shale and Austin Chalk formations in South Texas. The company was founded on February 14, 2017 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.

About Geopark

GeoPark Limited operates as an oil and natural gas exploration and production company primarily in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and other Latin American countries. It engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas reserves. The company was formerly known as GeoPark Holdings Limited and changed its name to GeoPark Limited in July 2013. GeoPark Limited was founded in 2002 and is based in Bogotá, Colombia.