Smart Sand (NASDAQ:SND) vs. Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) Financial Review

Smart Sand (NASDAQ:SND) and Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) are both small-cap energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and dividends.

Risk and Volatility

Smart Sand has a beta of 0.38, indicating that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Core Laboratories has a beta of 1.03, indicating that its stock price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

35.2% of Smart Sand shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.8% of Core Laboratories shares are owned by institutional investors. 34.0% of Smart Sand shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Core Laboratories shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Smart Sand and Core Laboratories, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Smart Sand	0	1	0	0	2.00
Core Laboratories	0	4	0	0	2.00

Core Laboratories has a consensus price target of $12.50, indicating a potential downside of 35.53%. Given Core Laboratories’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Core Laboratories is more favorable than Smart Sand.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Smart Sand and Core Laboratories”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Smart Sand	$335.47 million	0.50	$2.99 million	$0.09	42.78
Core Laboratories	$523.85 million	1.72	$31.40 million	$0.67	28.94

Core Laboratories has higher revenue and earnings than Smart Sand. Core Laboratories is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Smart Sand, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Smart Sand and Core Laboratories’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Smart Sand	1.16%	-7.55%	-5.25%
Core Laboratories	6.21%	12.85%	5.74%

Summary

Core Laboratories beats Smart Sand on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Smart Sand

Smart Sand, Inc., an integrated frac and industrial sand supply and services company, engages in the excavation, processing, and sale of sands or proppant for use in hydraulic fracturing operations in the oil and gas industry in the United States. It also provides proppant logistics services; and wellsite storage solutions through SmartSystems products and services. The company sells its products primarily to oil and natural gas exploration and production companies, oilfield service companies, and industrial manufacturers. Smart Sand, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Spring, Texas.

About Core Laboratories

Core Laboratories Inc. provides reservoir description and production enhancement services and products to the oil and gas industry in the United States, and internationally. It operates through Reservoir Description and Production Enhancement segments. The Reservoir Description segment includes the characterization of petroleum reservoir rock and reservoir fluid samples to enhance production and improve recovery of crude oil and gas from its clients' reservoirs. It offers laboratory-based analytical and field services to characterize properties of crude oil and oil delivered products; and proprietary and joint industry studies, as well as services that support carbon capture, utilization and storage, geothermal projects, and the evaluation and appraisal of mining activities. The Production Enhancement segment provides services and products relating to reservoir well completions, perforations, stimulations, production, and well abandonment. It offers integrated diagnostic services to evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of well completions and to develop solutions to improve the effectiveness of enhanced oil recovery projects. The company markets and sells its products through a combination of sales representatives, technical seminars, trade shows, and print advertising, as well as through distributors. Core Laboratories Inc. was founded in 1936 and is based in Houston, Texas.